Men’s pole vault: Mondo Duplantis is one of nine athletes of the 14-strong field to have cleared the first height of 5.55m. Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis – runner-up to Duplantis at the last worlds and Euros – and Great Britain’s Owen Heard also cleared it first time.

Great Britain won double gold in the 4x100m relays last night but the evening was tempered by a security scare. Dozens of athletes, including Britain’s Amy Hunt, and thousands of spectators were caught up in a massive security operation involving armed police at Alexander Stadium.

One coach reported there were armed guards around the warm-up track and bus terminals, while police were seen searching buses. Another leading British coach said they got on a 10.15pm bus that only left at 11.45pm and arrived back at 12.30am. “Fortunately they kept the kitchens open for the athletes,” a team official said.

The West Midlands police said a man in his 30s was arrested and remains in custody for questioning following suspicious behaviour.

Sean Ingle was there and has more …

What happened this morning? Germany’s Amanal Petros and Finland’s Alisa Vainio won the men and women’s marathons in Birmingham. Petros, the Olympic silver medallist, claimed victory in a championship record of 2hr 09min 11sec, beating by 40sec Belgian Koen Naert’s previous best, set in Berlin in 2018. Italy’s Pietro Riva, who took European silver in the half-marathon in Rome two years ago, claimed silver in 2:09.18, just 3sec ahead of Ethiopian-born Israeli Gashau Ayale.

Vainio, who finished fifth at last year’s world champs in Tokyo, clocked a dominant winning time of 2:22.26, her long solo effort beating by almost three minutes the previous championship record set by France’s Christelle Daunay in Zurich in 2014. Hungary took silver through Lili Anna Vindics-Toth, in a personal best of 2:27:21, while Britain’s Abbie Donnelly picked up bronze (2:27:33).

Donnelly became the first British woman to win a marathon medal at the European championships – all while also studying for a PhD in Victorian Imperialism at Loughborough University which is due in just six weeks’ time.

After adding bronze to her European cross-country third place in 2023, Donnelly said: “I really hoped (I could get a medal today), but it was an optimistic goal.

It got tough with about three laps to go because you know the hills by that point and know where the hard points are so it was a proper rollercoaster. The crowd literally did get me to the end. I think I had a bit of an out of body experience, I was just being screamed at which I love.

These two events did not come in a well-timed place in the year so I might give myself tomorrow and then I’ve got a lot of writing left to do.

Israel won the men’s team gold thanks to having four runners in the top 12, ahead of Germany and France. Britain topped the podium in the women’s team event ahead of Italy and Spain. AFP and PA Media