Israeli marathon team wins European gold in Birmingham

Israel’s men’s marathon team has won gold at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham, narrowly beating Germany to claim the title for the third time.

The Israeli runners recorded a combined time of 6:28:37 in Sunday’s race, finishing 26 seconds ahead of Germany, who took silver in 6:29:03. France claimed bronze in 6:32:12.

Gashau Ayale led the Israeli team with an individual bronze medal, completing the marathon in 2:09:21.

He finished just 10 seconds behind German winner Amanal Petros, while Italy’s Pietro Riva took silver.

Israel’s Tadesse Getahon crossed the line 10 seconds after Ayale to finish fifth, with teammate Haimro Alame taking eighth place.

The result secured Israel its third European men’s marathon team title, following golds in Munich in 2022 and at the European Running Championships in Brussels-Leuven in 2025. Ayale was part of all three winning teams.

Speaking to Israeli news site Ynet after the race, Ayale said he urged his teammates to give everything they had as Israel and Germany battled for the team title.

“I told the (other runners) that the war was between us and the Germans. There were three Israelis in the group, and I told them that this was the time to give it everything we had in our legs, and we achieved our goal.”

Ayale dedicated the medal to the people of Israel.

“It is a great honour for us,” he said. “I love you all very much, and I’ll see you next year.”

The victory came days after another Israeli athlete at the championships, hurdler Omri Shiff, was at the centre of controversy when Spanish broadcaster RTVE failed to name him during televised introductions for the men’s 400m hurdles.

As previously reported by Jewish News, Shiff was the only athlete in the sequence whose name and country were omitted.

RTVE later apologised for the omission but said it was caused by the demands of live broadcasting and had no connection to “political, ideological, or religious motives”.