History for Hunt and Asher-Smith in golden finish for GB

Great Britain’s Birmingham Sweep: A Historic Final Day at the European Championships

Constantvpn.com – For the first time in the competition’s 92-year history, the European Athletics Championships were staged on British soil, and the home crowd in Birmingham witnessed a final-day spectacle that will define a generation of sprinting. In a span of roughly 76 minutes, the British squad collected five medals, pushing their overall tally to 19 and cementing a dominant run through the meet. Yet the day’s defining moment belonged to a quartet of sprinters who delivered the ninth gold of the tournament in a mixed 4x100m relay that had never before been contested at this level.

Hunt’s Unprecedented Fourth Gold

Amy Hunt, the 24-year-old Cambridge University graduate who had already claimed the 100m, 200m, and women’s 4x100m titles during the week, crossed the line to an unprecedented fourth gold. Anchoring the British relay team behind Jeremiah Azu, Dina Asher-Smith, and Zharnel Hughes, she held off Germany’s Gina Luckenkemper on the home straight and finished in a European record 39.97 seconds. After the finish, the world silver medallist raised four fingers toward the cameras as the sell-out arena erupted.

“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.

Hunt had publicly declared her intention to collect all four sprint titles during the week, aiming to become what she called “iconic.” The weight of expectation mounted with each successive victory, but she delivered under the roar of her home supporters every time she took the baton. Few anticipated any falter once the final exchange began.

Asher-Smith’s Unmatched Legacy

For Dina Asher-Smith, the relay baton carried a different kind of weight. At 30, the world 200m champion from 2019 added an eighth gold and an 11th overall medal to her Birmingham haul, making her the most decorated athlete in the championships’ entire history. Her record-equalling seventh gold had come just the night before, a decade after she first stood on a European podium. Despite admitting she felt “absolutely terrified” during what was the inaugural mixed 4x100m relay at these championships, the 22-time international medallist left Birmingham with a legacy that no other competitor in the event’s history has matched.

Hunt, for her part, described her teammate as “the real life GOAT” after the relay triumph, underscoring the mutual respect between the two women who had dominated every sprint final of the week.

Hughes Joins an Elite Company

Zharnel Hughes, running third leg of the mixed relay, surpassed Matthew Hudson-Smith, Mo Farah, and Roger Black to become the most successful British male athlete at the championships with his sixth gold. His role in the relay completed a sweep that saw the British squad take six golds from a possible seven across all sprint events, combining with the separate men’s and women’s 4x100m victories secured less than 24 hours earlier.

Hunter-Bell’s Commanding 1500m Return

Georgia Hunter-Bell delivered a performance described as “serene, beautiful” in the women’s 1500m final, controlling the race before surging clear on the final lap to claim gold. The 32-year-old, who made her senior debut for Great Britain in 2024 after a five-year absence from competitive athletics following a promising junior career, added this title to world indoor and Commonwealth Games golds already banked earlier in the year. It marked her seventh international medal in just two seasons.

Hunter-Bell’s trajectory represents one of the sport’s most remarkable comebacks. Having quit the sport at the height of junior promise, she returned to claim a global podium for the first time at the world indoors in March, secured her first outdoor international title at the Commonwealth Games two weeks before Birmingham, and now aims to complete a quadruple by winning golds at all four major championships in 2026. Her next target is the inaugural World Ultimate Championships in September.

Italy Edges GB in the Men’s 4x400m

Great Britain’s ninth gold was narrowly denied in the men’s 4x400m relay, where Italy prevailed by a margin of just 0.03 seconds. Matthew Hudson-Smith, alongside Toby Harries, Ben Jefferies, and Charlie Dobson, crossed the line in silver. The result nonetheless propelled Hudson-Smith past French sprinter Christophe Lemaitre as the most decorated male athlete in championship history with his ninth overall medal.

The women’s 4x400m relay also produced a British silver. Yemi Mary John, Lina Nielsen, Nicole Yeargin, and Emily Newnham finished 0.58 seconds behind a Dutch quartet anchored by 800m bronze medallist Femke Broeders-Bol.

Sawyers Falls One Centimetre Short

In the women’s long jump, Jazmin Sawyers produced a career-best series of marks in her stunning post-injury resurgence, posting a best leap of 6.99 metres. That placed her one centimetre behind Italy’s Larissa Iapichino, who claimed the gold. The margin underscored how razor-thin the competition had become at the elite level.

What the Birmingham Final Day Means

The final-day results confirmed that Great Britain’s hosting of the championships produced a home advantage that translated into sustained dominance across the sprint programme. Five medals in under two hours at the close of the meet, combined with the week’s earlier triumphs, gave the British squad a medal haul that no previous home nation had matched in the competition’s history. For Hunt, whose medal collection is still young, the Birmingham performances suggest a trajectory that will keep rivals on alert through the remainder of the 2025 season and beyond. For Asher-Smith, the numbers now speak for themselves: no athlete, male or female, has accumulated more honours across the championships’ nine-decade run. And for Hunter-Bell, the quadruple ambition remains very much alive, with one major title still to chase before the year closes.