Spain takes bronze in women's marathon team event at European Athletics Championships in Birmingham

Spanish women's marathon team claims bronze

Spain's women's marathon team secured the bronze medal in the team event on the closing day of the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham, finishing behind Great Britain (gold) and Italy (silver). The Spanish quartet consisted of Carolina Robles in 8th place with a time of 2:28:07, Fátima Ouhaddou in 15th (2:30:37), Ester Navarrete in 18th (2:31:57), and Meritxell Soler in 20th (2:32:21). Team scoring counted the times of each country's top three finishers, with Soler's result not factoring into the total. The bronze was Spain's seventh medal of the championships, with additional events still scheduled for Sunday evening at the Alexander Stadium.

Vainio dominates individual race from the start

Finland's Alisa Vainio, 28, led the women's marathon from the opening steps at Victoria Square and never relinquished control. The pace she set in the early kilometres dropped rival after rival, and she crossed the finish line in 2:22:26, a championship record, leaving her nearest pursuer nearly five minutes behind. Hungary's Lilli Anna Vindics-Toth took individual silver with a personal best of 2:27:21, and Great Britain's Abbie Donnelly claimed bronze in 2:27:33. The course was composed of a one-kilometre section run at the beginning and end of the race, plus an eight-lap five-kilometre circuit through central Birmingham, described by El Mundo as full of short climbs that made it punishing for the athletes.

Robles leads Spanish challenge in second career marathon

Carolina Robles, a 3,000-metre steeplechaser from Seville who competed at the Tokyo and Paris Olympics, delivered the best Spanish individual performance in what was only the second marathon of her career. Her first came in Barcelona in March 2026, which she won with a time of 2:24:58. In Birmingham, Robles described the difficulty of the course and her tactical approach.

I tried to stay as far ahead as possible dreaming of the top 8, the medal was within reach, but on the last lap with Vainio's change of pace I was KO.

Fátima Ouhaddou, who finished 15th, offered her own assessment.

I did it reasonably well, better than I expected, I started very badly, but very happy with the 2h15m.

Men's marathon and Spain's overall medal tally

In the men's marathon, Germany's Amanal Petros, of Eritrean origin, won gold with a championship record of 2:09:11. The best Spanish finisher was Jorge González Rivera in 14th place, 1 minute 59 seconds behind the winner.

The team bronze brought Spain's total to seven medals at the Birmingham championships. The haul includes golds for race walkers María Pérez and Paúl McGrath, silvers for Miguel Ángel López in race walk and Marta García in the 5,000 metres, and bronzes for Raquel González in race walk, Mohamed Attaoui in the 800 metres, and the women's marathon team.

Spain had previously won a team bronze in the half marathon at the 2024 European Championships in Rome, an Olympic year in which the full marathon distance was not contested. Navarrete and Ouhaddou were part of that squad alongside Laura Luengo, who was absent in Birmingham due to injury. In Rome, Luengo clocked 1:10:54, Navarrete 1:11:08, and Ouhaddou 1:11:14, delivering what was then Spain's fourth medal of eight total at those championships.