At the European Championship: Italy marches into paradise

Italy's medal show at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham continues: On Saturday there was a memorable double gold.

August 15, 2026

From: det

The new European champions in race walking come from Italy! Massimo Stano and Sofia Fiorini each won the gold medal over the marathon distance (42,195 kilometers) on Saturday – causing great jubilation.

Stano is a true star in the race walking world. The 34-year-old from Apulia has already won Olympic gold in the 20-kilometer race and World Championship gold in the 35-kilometer race. Now he has achieved another gold medal at the European Championships in the marathon. With a time of 2:56:49, Stano even broke the European record. "I'm overjoyed," said the race walker after the competition. "At the European Championships, I didn't always have the same fire as at a World Championship. But this time it was different."

Massimo Stano was crowned European champion. © ANSA / TOLGA AKMEN

Sofia Fiorini, who will celebrate her 22nd birthday next Wednesday, was also overjoyed and gave herself an early present with her European Championship gold medal. Besides the gold medal, the race walker from Tuscany caused particular astonishment with her time: she stopped the clock at 3:15:11, setting a new world record. She beat the previous best time by a full nine minutes. "That leaves me speechless," said Fiorini.

Italy won three more medals in race walking this Saturday. Francesco Fortunato and Andrea Cosi took silver and bronze respectively in the half marathon, while Alexandrina Mihai also secured silver in the women's race over the same distance.

Keywords Track & Field em Yourself