Petros and Vainio Set New Records at Euro Marathons

At the European championships held in Birmingham on Sunday, Eritrean-born German Amanal Petros and Finland’s Alisa Vainio triumphed in the men’s and women’s marathons, respectively, establishing new championship records. Petros, an Olympic silver medallist, won the men’s race with a time of 2 hours, 9 minutes, and 11 seconds, breaking the previous record of 2:09:51 set by Belgian Koen Naert in Berlin in 2018 by 40 seconds.

Italy’s Pietro Riva secured the silver medal with a time of 2:09:18, finishing just 3 seconds ahead of Ethiopian-born Israeli Gashau Ayale. In the women’s marathon, Vainio, who placed fifth at the previous year’s world championships in Tokyo, achieved a winning time of 2:22:26, which was nearly three minutes faster than the previous championship record of 2:25:29 set by France’s Christelle Daunay in Zurich in 2014.

Hungary’s Lili Anna Vindics-Toth earned silver with a personal best of 2:27:21, while Britain’s Abbie Donnelly took bronze in 2:27:33. Israel won the men’s team gold, with Germany and France following, while Britain topped the women’s team event ahead of Italy and Spain.