European Athletics Championships 2026: Amy Hunt and Dina Asher-Smith make history with relay gold

- Published

Amy Hunt and Dina Asher-Smith made history and Georgia Hunter Bell claimed a commanding 1500m gold in a spectacular finish for Great Britain at the European Championships.

Sprint sensation Hunt held up four fingers to the camera after holding off Germany's challenge on the home straight of the mixed 4x100m relay as another sell-out crowd roared the 24-year-old on to an unprecedented fourth gold in Birmingham.

The world silver medallist completed victory for the quartet in a European record 39.97 seconds to add to her triumphs in the 100m, 200m and women's 4x100m in the past seven days.

"Oh my gosh, I am over the moon. I think to finish it off with some of my best friends in the sport is incredible," Hunt told BBC Sport.

With her eighth gold and 11th medal overall, Asher-Smith is unparalleled as the most successful athlete in the competition's 92-year history, with a team also featuring Jeremiah Azu and Zharnel Hughes extending the hosts' domination of the sprint events.

Hunter Bell expertly controlled the women's 1500m final before bursting clear to continue her golden year by adding to world indoor and Commonwealth glory.

That represented the 32-year-old's seventh international medal in two years as she continues to build momentum on her fairytale return to the sport which she quit for five years following a promising junior career.

It was GB's ninth gold medal overall - but they were pipped to top spot in the medal table by Italy, who edged them to the competition's final gold in the men's 4x400m relay by just 0.03 seconds.

With silver in that event, Matthew Hudson-Smith, who was joined by Toby Harries, Ben Jefferies and Charlie Dobson, surpassed French sprinter Christophe Lemaitre as the most decorated man in championship history with his ninth medal overall.

The home nation brought the curtain down on the first European Athletics Championships to be hosted in Great Britain with five medals in 76 minutes, taking their overall medal tally to 19.

Long jumper Jazmin Sawyers continued her stunning return to form post-injury by producing a career-best series of results, but finished one centimetre shy of Italy's gold medallist Larissa Iapichino with a best leap of 6.99 metres.

There was also silver for the women's 4x400m relay team, consisting of Yemi Mary John, Lina Nielsen, Nicole Yeargin and Emily Newnham, who finished 0.58 seconds behind a Dutch quartet anchored by 800m bronze medallist Femke Broeders-Bol.

The 'GOAT' and an 'icon' combine again for GB

Less than 24 hours after combining with their respective men's and women's quartets to win 4x100m golds, Azu, Asher-Smith, Hughes and Hunt - in that order - made it six golds out of a possible seven across the sprint events.

Hunt described team-mate Asher-Smith as "the real life GOAT" [greatest of all time] after the 30-year-old won a record-equalling seventh gold on Saturday night, a decade on from capturing her first.

Despite feeling "absolutely terrified" during the event's inaugural mixed 4x100m relay, Asher-Smith, world 200m champion in 2019, leaves Birmingham a 22-time international medallist in her senior career.

Based on her performances this week, Hunt is only just getting started with her growing medal collection.

The Cambridge University graduate boldly stated her intention to take all four sprint titles this week in her bid to be "iconic".

The weight of expectation has increased with each success, but she has risen to the moment in front of her home crowd on each occasion and few expected her to falter once she took the baton and began her battle with Germany's Gina Luckenkemper.

Cheering his team-mate on after handing over to Hunt, Hughes surpassed Hudson-Smith, Mo Farah and Roger Black as the most successful British man with his sixth gold at the championships.

Hunter Bell one gold from 2026 quadruple

Having topped a global podium for the first time at the world indoors in March, and secured her first international title outdoors at the Commonwealth Games a fortnight ago, Hunter Bell made it three from three in her own bid for a quadruple.

The 32-year-old, who made her debut for Great Britain in 2024, set out to win golds at all four major championships in 2026, and will attempt to complete her set at the inaugural World Ultimate Championships in September.

This was the latest chapter in her remarkable rise to the top of the sport which she had fallen out of love with amid repeated injuries caused by overtraining during her time on a track scholarship in the United States.

She has gone from strength to strength ever since re-establishing contact with Trevor Painter, coach of Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson, in 2022.

It follows a 2025 season during which she displayed her versatility by pipping training partner Hodgkinson to world 800m silver, which suggested a potential bid to replicate Dame Kelly Holmes' Olympic middle-distance double in 2028 is a real possibility.

After Kenya's world champion Lilian Odira failed to get close to Hunter Bell at the Commonwealth Games, Hunter Bell finished more than one second clear of Poland's Klaudia Kazimierska in 4:07.78 as her running renaissance continued.

'I believed I could get back here' - Sawyers

Two weeks after completing a remarkable recovery from serious injury to win the Commonwealth title in Glasgow, long-jumper Sawyers was delighted to return to the European podium despite going agonisingly close to gold.

Sawyers, who returned to action last year, suffered a devastating Achilles rupture on her take-off leg which ended her Olympic hopes.

Sawyers celebrated her first senior international title with European Indoor gold in 2023, leaping seven metres for the first time.

Having seemingly returned as strong as ever, the 32-year-old produced the biggest outdoor leap of her career and said she was too happy to be annoyed at being so close to winning.

"There were minuscule moments where I doubted it [if she could come back]," Sawyers said.

"The only reason I was able to get through it was because I believed I could get back here. I was getting back to better than I had ever been."

Reporting originally appeared via BBC News. Read the full source for additional context.