Birmingham: Ntrismpioti 4th, Tsinopoulou 5th

Antigoni Ntrismpioti finished fourth and Penny Tsinopoulou fifth in the marathon race walk at the European Championships in Birmingham, on Saturday 15 August 2026. The race started at 07:30, with the temperature below 20 degrees Celsius and on a one-kilometre loop course. Ntrismpioti recorded 3 hours 22 minutes and 16 seconds, in the first marathon race walk of her career and at the age of 42. Tsinopoulou finished in 3 hours 25 minutes and 14 seconds, the highest position she has taken at a major championship, at the age of 36. The two Greek athletes walked close to one another for much of the course, within the group contesting the podium places.

Both performances are far better than the previous Greek best, the 3:38.14 that belonged to Tsinopoulou herself. Ntrismpioti passed the half marathon in 1:40.19 and then cut her gap to the third-placed Spaniard Raquel González to less than 25 seconds, before receiving two warnings from the judges, which forced her to adjust her pace. In the same race, Olga Fiaska retired after the 27th kilometre, while Efi Kourkoutsaki finished 15th in 3:51.36, improving considerably on her previous personal best. Warnings in race walking are given when the judges consider that the athlete loses contact with the ground or does not straighten the knee, and three such judgements lead to disqualification.

In the men’s race, Alexandros Papamichail finished 21st with 3:18.25, a performance better than the 3:24.07 he had recorded at Aliartos in January 2026. This is the fifth European Championships of his career. On the same day, the Greek men’s 4x100 metres relay qualified for the final, while the women’s did not finish. The marathon race walk requires a combination of endurance and technical precision for more than three hours, which makes it one of the most demanding events on the programme.

The marathon race walk is a relatively new event on the programme of the major championships, since it replaced the 50 kilometres walk, and performances in it are still taking shape. For the Greek team, having two athletes simultaneously in fourth and fifth place in Europe is the best overall result recorded in the event. Ntrismpioti has two gold medals to her name from the European Championships in Munich in 2022, in the 20 and 35 kilometres walk. The Greek team had already celebrated at these championships the fourth European title of Miltos Tentoglou in the long jump, with a leap of 8.44 metres.

Update, 16 August 2026: Later in the championships, Dimitris Tsiamis finished eighth in the triple jump final and Giannis Tsitsos twelfth in the javelin final. The Greek men’s 4x100 metres relay qualified for the final and took sixth place in Europe, while the women’s did not finish because of an error at a changeover. In the marathon of 16 August, Stamoulis and Noulas recorded their best performances of the year.