The first five British athletes have been selected to run the marathon at the 2026 European Athletics Championships in Birmingham.
Mohamed Mohamed leads the British marathon competition at this summer’s European Athletics Championships.
After making a strong comeback from an injury-plagued 2025, the 28-year-old set a personal best in 61:09 over the half-marathon in Barcelona last weekend.
He runs a marathon best of 2:07:05 from his fourth place in London two years ago, which sees him fourth in the UK all-time rankings.
Phil Sesemann from last year’s Valencia Marathon is fifth on the UK all-time list with a best of 2:07:11 and has also been selected to run the 26.2 miles in Birmingham. The only other male athlete to make the team so far is Johnny Mellor, and he also excelled in Valencia in December, clocking a personal best of 2:08:45 at the age of 39.
European bronze medalist and 2:24:11 marathoner Abby Donnelly leads the women’s field. He achieved that feat at last year’s Frankfurt Marathon when, in his second race over 26.2 miles, he became the first European to cross the finish line.
He is joined by Natasha Wilson, who represented Great Britain at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest. Wilson had a strong 2025 autumn season, posting personal bests over 10km and a marathon time of 2:24:19, which puts him eighth on the UK all-time list.
This choice was made to meet the policy objectives of achieving individual places in the top eight and to maximize the potential for team medal success. The second election will take place in the spring.
Both the men’s and women’s marathon will take place on the morning of August 16.
“We are pleased to confirm the first athletes selected for the marathon at the European Championships. Each has shown exceptional form and their performances over the last year show they can compete with Europe’s best.
“Birmingham will provide a fantastic stage for these athletes, with the home crowd cheering them on. We look forward to adding additional athletes to the team in the spring as preparations continue in August.”
