Birmingham is set to host the European Athletics Championships in August, so here is everything you need to know about the competition
The biggest athletics competition of the year is almost upon us.
The 27th European Athletics Championships will bring together the continent’s finest athletes in Birmingham for one week, with 50 gold medals on offer.
So, here’s everything you need to know about it.
Where is it?
Birmingham was selected as the host city in 2022 after Budapest withdrew its bid.
Athletics separated from the multi-sport European Championships that had existed for two cycles prior, meaning 2026 will return to the old standalone format.
The Alexander Stadium will host the competition, four years on from being the centrepiece of the Commonwealth Games, and it is set to reintroduce temporary seating that will take its capacity up to 40,000, despite a permanent maximum of 18,000.
When is it?
The competition will run from 10 to 16 August, with medal events spread evenly across the seven days of competition.
That is just one week on from the Commonwealth Games closing ceremony, with many athletes such as Georgia Hunter Bell set to compete across both competitions.
The European Athletics Championships are a biennial event, alternating with the World Championships, though every other edition’s year is shared with the Olympics.
Who will be there for Team GB?
Paris Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson has set the competition as her main target for the year, and will be joined by training partner Georgia Hunter Bell, who pipped Hodgkinson to silver at last year’s World Championships in Tokyo.
2019 world champions Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Dina Asher-Smith will both compete, despite pulling out of the Commonwealth Games.
And Wolverhampton-born Olympic silver medallist Matt Hudson-Smith will steam past the stand that bears his name in his 400m efforts. Amber Anning and Jake Wightman are two more big names for Team GB.
But newly-crowned mile world record holder Josh Kerr will not be present, after he opted to prioritise his home Commonwealth Games in Glasgow instead.
Who else should we look out for?
Plenty of the sport’s biggest names will be in Birmingham on the hunt for more medals.
Mondo Duplantis always looks to threaten his own pole vault world record at every meet, while another springy world record holder, Ukrainian high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh, is competing too.
Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen and the Netherlands’ Femke Broeders-Bol will need little introduction to the British crowd after their smorgasbords of achievements in their careers.
Where can I watch it?
The BBC will broadcast every day of the Championships live across TV and iPlayer.