KEELY HODGKINSON RETAINS HER 800M TITLE AT THE 2024 EUROPEAN ATHLETICS CHAMPIONSHIPS

The 2024 European Athletics Championships, hosted by the ancient Italian capital of Rome and headquartered at the city’s Stadio Olimpico, served up a tasty dose of sporting drama over the past six days. Taking place from 7-12 June, it marked the 26^th edition of the biennial European Athletics Championships, which continues to attract finest competitors across the continent.

This year, we saw more than 1,500 athletes from 48 nations battle it out across 47 events, with Britain securing a belief-boosting haul of four golds, four silvers and five bronzes, placing the nation third on the medal table. While British stars Keely Hodgkinson and Dina Asher-Smith dominated the 800m and 100m respectively, we also witnessed triumphant track relays and commanding long distance runs – not to mention some unfortunate mistimed celebrations.

We've rounded up the best bits from the contest below.

Keely Hodgkinson repeats her European 800m win

The final day saw one of the finest performances from Keely Hodgkinson, the defending 800m champion who assertively held onto her European title in Rome. Despite running with a cold, on Wednesday (12 June) British star Hodgkinson left everything on the track as she powered to her second consecutive European win in a time of 1:58.65. With two Olympic silver medals also under her belt already, she is now looking in promising form to bag an Olympic gold in Paris.

Dina Asher-Smith seals 100m victory

Despite suffering a string of career-halting injuries over the past few years, 28-year-old British sprint sensation Dina Asher-Smith is far from done, having powered to first place at the 100m on Sunday (9 June). The 2019 World Champion in the 200m, and the national record holder for both the 100m and 200m, Asher-Smith set off from her starting blocks relatively slowly before reeling in her competitors to become the 100m European champion. Having not won a European gold since 2018 – where she collected a clean sweep of wins in the 100m, 200m and 4 x 100m relay – this second 100m win must have felt especially sweet after a six-year wait.

And even sweeter things were to come on Wednesday (12 June), when Asher-Smith toed the line again for the women’s 4 x 100m relay alongside British teammates Desiree Henry, Amy Hunt and Daryll Neita. Collectively completing the single-lap race in 41.91 seconds, the quartet passed the baton to a lightning-fast first place, giving Asher-Smith her sixth European gold medal.

Ireland wins European gold – twice

You could call it the luck of the Irish – or the richly-deserved result of some serious graft.

On the first day of the Championships (7 June), Ireland won its first European title since 1998 in the mixed 4 x 400m relay. Breaking the nation’s 24-year gold medal dearth were an elated Chris O’Donnell, Rhasidat Adeleke, Thomas Barr and Sharlene Mawdsley, who squeezed ahead of Italy by only 0.77 seconds to become European champions. And, as if a gold medal wasn’t enough, this outstanding four-lap run also set a new championship record and shaved 1.61 seconds off the previous national mark.

But Ireland still had a second headline to grab. Just two days later, on 9 June, 32-year-old Ciara Mageean stormed to gold in the 1500m in a time of 4:04.66 – claiming, in the process, the first major title of her career. Britain’s middle-distance talent Georgia Bell finished less than a second behind Mageean to claim silver, while fellow Brit Jemma Reekie put up a formidable fight before fading to fifth.

Megan Keith collects bronze in the 10,000m

The past few months have been exceptional for Megan Keith, who now has every right to get excited about donning the Team GB kit at the 2024 Olympic Games. An almost-instant long-distance sensation, the British runner shot into the spotlight in March this year when she ran her first 10,000m race in an Olympic qualifying time of 30:36.84, placing her fourth on the UK all-time list for the discipline. Keith then won the elite race at the Night of the 10,000m PB’s in mid-May to firework celebrations (quite literally), and now has a European bronze medal to her name, having conquered the women’s 10,000m race in a time of 31:04.07 on Tuesday (11 June). The future for 22-year-old Keith seems blindingly bright.

Calli Hauger-Thackery claims a half marathon medal

With her selection for Team GB’s Olympic marathon already a sealed deal – thanks to the rapid 2:22:17 that she clocked in her debut marathon last October – you could argue that Calli Hauger-Thackery had nothing to prove in the half marathon at this year’s European Athletics Championships. And yet, she proved it anyway. The 31-year-old Brit bagged an impressive European bronze in Rome on Sunday (9 June), having completed the 13.1-mile course – which started at the ancient Fori Imperiali and culminated within the Stadio Olimpico – in 1:08:58.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen does another historic double

He’s done it again: Jakob Ingebrigtsen has snapped up yet another pair of major titles on the track. The 2018 and 2022 European champion in the 1500m and 5000m once again clinched victory in both events in Rome, making him the first man to win six European individual golds and an even fiercer competitor as we head toward the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

Still only 23 years old, Ingebrigtsen commenced his double three-peat in the 5000m final on Saturday (8 June), where he hovered near the back of the pack for the first half of the race before charging to a decisive victory in 13:20.11. Another mighty 5000m performance came from Britain’s George Mills, who flew across the line in 13:21.38 to take silver – his first senior championship medal.

The history-making resumed on Wednesday (12 June), when a fired-up Ingebrigtsen shot to a championship record of 3:31:95 in the 1500m final. On the closing bend of the three-and-three-quarter-lap race, the Norwegian was clearly out to be seen and taken seriously as he broke free from the pack to finish 10m ahead of the second man home.

Daryll Neita narrowly misses gold in the 200m

There’s coming second – and then there’s coming second by one hundredth of a second. That’s the situation Daryll Neita faced on Tuesday (11 June) in the 200m, where her silver medal-scoring time of 22.50 seconds was just 0.01 seconds slower than that of the winner, Switzerland’s Mujinga Kambundji. A two-time Olympic bronze medallist in the 4 x 100m, British Neita was devastated to have missed the win by such a tight margin, the photo finish showing her dip at the line to not quite be enough to out-sprint Kambundji.

Premature fist pumps in the 20km race walk

And lest we forget Spaniard Laura García-Caro, who was left red-faced on the opening day of the Championships (7 June) when the bronze medal she believed she’d secured slipped away from her in the closing second. Taking part in the 20km race walk, a beaming García-Caro already had a Spanish flag in hand when she punched the air and stuck out her tongue in triumph just five metres from the finish line – only to have Ukraine’s Lyudmila Olyanovska catch up from behind and pip her to third place.

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