Italy Top the Birmingham 2026 European Athletics Medal Table as Duplantis Clears 6.15m
Alexander Stadium hosted the first European Athletics Championships staged in Britain from 10 to 16 August, and Italy left with 10 golds to Great Britain's nine after a 4x400m relay decided by three hundredths of a second.
The 2026 European Athletics Championships closed at Alexander Stadium on 16 August after seven days that Italy finished on top of — and that Great Britain came within three hundredths of a second of finishing differently.
A first for Britain
Birmingham became the first British city to stage the European Athletics Championships, an event it landed in November 2022 after Budapest withdrew from the bidding. Alexander Stadium, rebuilt between 2019 and 2022 for the Commonwealth Games, has two permanent stands seating 18,000 and expands to around 40,000 for major meets.
This was also the first edition run as a standalone championship rather than as part of the multi-sport European Championships, which gave athletics a full week of undivided attention.
Final medal table
| Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Italy | 10 | 6 | 6 | 22 |
| Great Britain | 9 | 8 | 2 | 19 |
| Germany | 6 | 10 | 5 | 21 |
Germany actually finished with more medals than Great Britain and only one fewer than Italy, but converted far fewer of them into golds — 10 silvers is the sort of return that reads as either bad luck or a very thin margin, depending on which final you were watching.
Italy's win was their second consecutive European title, built less on one or two dominant events than on scoring across the programme.
The moments that decided it
The championships came down to the relays on the closing day. Italy's men's 4x400m squad beat Great Britain by 0.03 seconds, a margin that effectively settled the top of the table in the last race of the week. The Netherlands took the women's 4x400m.
In the field, Mondo Duplantis won the pole vault with a clearance of 6.15m before calling an end to his competition — a mark that would win most global finals, produced on a night when he did not need it. Georgia Hunter Bell gave the host nation one of its loudest moments with gold in the women's 1500m.
What it sets up
A standalone European Championships in an even year sits awkwardly in the calendar for athletes managing a full outdoor season, and the performances here will be read partly as form indicators for what comes next rather than as end points in themselves. Italy's depth across sprints, jumps and endurance is the more durable takeaway; Germany's silver count suggests a squad that is close to a much better week.
Following athletics on Playdash
Playdash prices athletics around the majors, with event winner and podium markets for track and field finals, plus head-to-head matchups in the sprints and distance events. Championship-week coverage runs session by session, so finals nights are priced separately from qualifying rounds.
Medal table reflects the final standings from Birmingham 2026.