PUMA athletes won 33 medals at the 2026 European Athletics Championships in Birmingham, including 16 golds and four Championship Records.
The 2026 European Athletics Championships produced enough drama in Birmingham to keep statisticians, flag manufacturers and podium attendants gainfully employed.
By PUMA’s count, 28 athletes wearing its footwear collected 33 medals, including 16 golds, while four Championship Records fell during a week in which several of Europe’s biggest names reminded everyone that reputation is rather more useful when accompanied by performance.
There was considerable variety to the success, too. Sprints, jumps, hurdles, marathon and relays all contributed. This was less a neat little run of victories than a raid on most corners of the athletics programme.
Hudson-Smith makes Birmingham his own
For Matthew Hudson-Smith, the setting could hardly have been more personal.
The British 400m star claimed his third individual European title at the stadium where he had trained from the age of nine and where a stand now carries his name. Sporting homecomings can become rather sentimental affairs. Winning tends to remove that problem.
His victory delivered a fifth European Championships gold overall before he added silver in the men’s 4x400m relay, the final event of the championships.
Norway had already made an emphatic entrance. Karsten Warholm, Amalie Iuel and Henriette Jaeger helped their country win the Mixed 4x400m Relay in the opening final, before Warholm added the men’s 400m hurdles crown and Jaeger won the women’s 400m.
Apparently one gold medal each was considered insufficient luggage for the journey home.
Audrey Werro leads an impressive Swiss charge
Switzerland enjoyed one of the more productive passages of the championships.
Jason Joseph won the men’s 110m hurdles in a season’s best 13.12 seconds, while Angelica Moser cleared a season’s best 4.80m to take the women’s pole vault title.
Then came Audrey Werro.
Against a strong women’s 800m field, the emerging Swiss runner captured the first senior gold medal of her career in 1:54.81, setting a Championship Record in the process.
There are breakthrough victories and there are breakthrough victories accompanied by rewriting the championship record book. The latter tends to make a more convincing introduction.
Tentóglou and the jumpers take over
The field events supplied several of Birmingham’s most striking numbers.
Greece’s Miltiádis Tentóglou jumped 8.44m to beat Switzerland’s Simon Ehammer and secure a fourth successive European men’s long jump title.
The footwear detail was intriguing: Tentóglou competed in PUMA’s Mid Distance NITRO Elite 3, which the company describes as an elite spike designed for middle-to-long-distance racing. An 8.44m long jump is certainly one way to broaden the product brief.
In the men’s high jump, PUMA athletes occupied all three podium positions. Gianmarco Tamberi successfully defended his European crown ahead of Ukraine’s Oleh Doroschuk and fellow Italian Matteo Sioli.
Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh collected a third European women’s high jump title, but perhaps the most arresting field-event performance belonged to Andy Diaz.
The Italian triple jumper reached 18.15m, becoming European champion, setting an Italian national record and moving to the top of the year’s world list. The mark also placed him fourth on the all-time list.
A decent afternoon at the office, all things considered.
Duplantis adds another record to the collection
The championships finished much as they had proceeded: with another sizeable number appearing beside the letters “CR”.
Germany’s Amanal Petros won the first major title of his career in the marathon, recording a Championship Record of 2:09:11.
Then Mondo Duplantis, a man for whom gravity increasingly resembles an administrative inconvenience, cleared 6.15m in the men’s pole vault. The height established another Championship Record and secured gold ahead of Greece’s Manolo Karalis, giving PUMA a one-two finish.
Italy supplied the final PUMA victory through the men’s 4x400m relay, with Eduardo Scotti among the winning quartet. It took the brand’s stated gold-medal count for the championships to 16.
From Birmingham to Brussels and Budapest
There is little time for Europe’s leading athletes to admire the Birmingham hardware.
According to the supplied competition schedule, the Diamond League Finals in Brussels on September 4–5 are next, followed by the World Athletics Ultimate Championships in Budapest from September 11–13.
Birmingham nevertheless provided a useful marker before those meetings. Established champions such as Warholm, Duplantis, Tamberi, Mahuchikh and Hudson-Smith remained conspicuously difficult to dislodge, while Werro demonstrated that athletics’ next generation has no intention of waiting politely for its turn.
Thirty-three medals provide the headline. Four Championship Records give it some weight. The more interesting part is how many different athletes supplied them.
Birmingham’s podium may finally have stopped moving. Europe’s leading athletes plainly have not.
