German Owen Ansa won the gold medal in the 200m sprint at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham. The 25-year-old athlete crossed the finish line in 19.95 seconds. His achievement is the first in history for a German sprinter under 20 seconds at this distance, but will not be recognized as a national record due to the excessively strong headwind of 2.5 m/s, BTA reports. This is Ansa's second distinction of the championship. He previously won a bronze medal in the 100m.
The representative of the hosts, Zarnel Hughes, finished second with 20.16 seconds. The bronze medals were shared by Italy's Esseos Desalu and Switzerland's Timothée Mumenthaler, who finished in 20.26 seconds. Mumenthaler was the European champion in the event at the 2024 Rome Championships.
In the women's 800m final, Switzerland's Audrey Vero won the title in 1:54.81, breaking the 44-year-old European Championships record. The 22-year-old athlete beat Paris 2024 Olympic champion and defending champion Keeley Hodgkinson of Great Britain by 20 hundredths.
Third place went to Dutchwoman Femke Bruders-Boll in 1:55.54, equaling the country's national record.
Norway's Karsten Warholm won his fourth consecutive European title in the 400m hurdles. He finished in 46.63 seconds, improving by 35 hundredths his own European championship record, set in Rome in 2024.
This is Warholm's second gold in Birmingham, after he was also part of Norway's victorious 4x400m relay team. Germany's Emil Agyekum won silver in 47.87 seconds, while Turkey's Ismail Nezir was third in 48.26 seconds.
Italian Nadia Bartokleti did a double in the long runs. After her victory in the 5000 meters, she also won the 10,000 meters title with a time of 31:41.18 minutes. Thus, she defended her European titles in both disciplines from Rome 2024.
Swiss Maureen Koster finished second in 31:45.65 minutes, and the bronze went to Belgian Jana van Lent in 31:47.81 minutes.
In the women's discus throw, the European title was won by Dutch Jorinde van Klinken. The Tokyo 2025 world vice-champion achieved 67.67 meters on her first attempt.
Shanis Kraft from Germany finished second with 65.72 meters, and Sweden's Vanessa Kamga came in third with 64.61 meters. For Van Klinken, this is the second medal of the championship after the silver in the shot put.
In the high jump sector, Gianmarco Tamberi won the fourth European title of his career and the third in a row. The Italian, who is the Olympic champion from Tokyo 2020 and the world champion from Budapest 2023, cleared 2.32 meters.
The silver medal went to the Ukrainian Oleg Doroshchuk with 2.30 meters, and the Italian Matteo Scioli won the bronze medal with 2.27 meters.