Great Britain concluded the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham with a flourish, securing a historic victory in the mixed 4x100m relay. The quartet, featuring sprint sensation Amy Hunt, Dina Asher-Smith, Jeremiah Azu, and Zharnel Hughes, set a new European record of 39.97 seconds to claim gold. For the 24-year-old Hunt, the win marked an unprecedented fourth gold medal of the week, following her individual successes in the 100m, 200m, and the women’s 4x100m relay.
Reflecting on the achievement, Hunt expressed her delight to Sport, noting that finishing the competition alongside her closest friends in the sport was an incredible experience. The victory further cemented Asher-Smith’s legacy; with her eighth gold and 11th medal overall, she stands as the most successful athlete in the 92-year history of the European Championships.
The British team dominated the sprint events throughout the week, securing six out of a possible seven gold medals. Hunt, a Cambridge University graduate, had openly declared her ambition to sweep all four sprint titles, a goal she successfully realized through consistent performances in front of a capacity home crowd. Her final leg, where she held off a challenge from Germany’s Gina Luckenkemper, proved to be the highlight of the relay.
Zharnel Hughes also reached a significant milestone, surpassing the records of Matthew Hudson-Smith, Mo Farah, and Roger Black to become the most successful British man in the history of the championships with his sixth gold medal. Despite the success, the host nation narrowly missed out on topping the final medal table, finishing with nine golds and 19 medals in total, as Italy edged them out by 0.03 seconds in the men’s 4x400m relay.
Georgia Hunter Bell continued her remarkable career resurgence by claiming a commanding gold in the women’s 1500m. Finishing in 4:07.78, she crossed the line more than a second ahead of Poland’s Klaudia Kazimierska. This victory adds to her world indoor and Commonwealth titles, marking her seventh international medal in two years. Hunter Bell, who stepped away from the sport for five years before returning to train with Keely Hodgkinson’s coach, Trevor Painter, is now targeting a quadruple of major titles at the upcoming World Ultimate Championships in September.
In the field events, Jazmin Sawyers delivered a standout performance in the long jump. Following a challenging recovery from a career-threatening Achilles rupture that sidelined her for the Olympics, the 32-year-old produced a personal best leap of 6.99 metres. Although she finished just one centimetre behind Italy’s gold medallist Larissa Iapichino, Sawyers expressed immense satisfaction with her return to the international podium.
The final day of competition also saw the women’s 4x400m relay team—comprising Yemi Mary John, Lina Nielsen, Nicole Yeargin, and Emily Newnham—secure a silver medal. They finished 0.58 seconds behind the Dutch quartet, which was anchored by 800m bronze medallist Femke Broeders-Bol. The men’s 4x400m team also took silver, a result that helped Matthew Hudson-Smith become the most decorated man in championship history with his ninth career medal.
The championships, which were hosted in Great Britain for the first time, concluded with a flurry of activity that saw five medals awarded to British athletes within a 76-minute window. Throughout the week, the home crowd witnessed several historic performances, including Asher-Smith’s record-equalling seventh gold and Hunt’s emergence as a dominant force in European sprinting.
Hunter Bell’s success remains a central narrative of the event, highlighting her transition from a promising junior athlete to a world-class middle-distance runner. Her versatility, demonstrated by her 2025 world 800m silver medal, has fueled speculation about a potential attempt to replicate Dame Kelly Holmes’ Olympic middle-distance double in 2028.
For Sawyers, the European Championships served as a validation of her resilience. After winning European Indoor gold in 2023, the athlete faced significant physical setbacks, but her performance in Birmingham confirmed her status as a top-tier competitor. She noted that she was too happy with her career-best leap to feel frustrated by the narrow margin of defeat.
The event underscored the depth of British athletics, with established stars and returning veterans contributing to a high-pressure environment. Hunt’s bold pre-event declarations were matched by her composure on the track, while the relay teams demonstrated the tactical coordination required to excel at the continental level.
As the curtain falls on the 2026 European Athletics Championships, the focus shifts toward the upcoming global challenges. With athletes like Hunt, Hunter Bell, and Asher-Smith performing at their peak, the British team appears well-positioned to maintain its momentum on the international stage. The report also notes that dramatic last laps as GB take silver in men’s and women’s 4x400m relays. The report also notes that a decade on from capturing her first, hunt described team-mate Asher-Smith as “the real life GOAT” [greatest of all time] after the 30-year-old won a record-equalling seventh gold on Saturday night. The report also notes that despite feeling “absolutely terrified” during the event’s inaugural mixed 4x100m relay, Asher-Smith, world 200m champion in 2019, leaves Birmingham a 22-time international medallist in her senior career. The report also notes that but she has risen to the moment in front of her home crowd on each occasion and few expected her to falter once she took the baton and began her battle with Germany’s Gina Luckenkemper, the weight of expectation has increased with each success. The report also notes that and secured her first international title outdoors at the Commonwealth Games a fortnight ago, Hunter Bell made it three from three in her own bid for a quadruple, having topped a global podium for the first time at the world indoors in March. The report also notes that who made her debut for Great Britain in 2024, set out to win golds at all four major championships in 2026, and will attempt to complete her set at the inaugural World Ultimate Championships in September, the 32-year-old. The report also notes that this was the latest chapter in her remarkable rise to the top of the sport which she had fallen out of love with amid repeated injuries caused by overtraining during her time on a track scholarship in the United States. The report also notes that coach of Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson, in 2022, she has gone from strength to strength ever since re-establishing contact with Trevor Painter.
