Poland’s Aleksandra Lisowska claimed the first title at the European championships, winning the women’s marathon on the streets of Munich on Monday.
The 31-year-old Pole clocked 2hr 28min 36sec, Croatia’s Matea Parlov Kostro taking silver, at 7sec, with Nienke Brinkman of the Netherlands claiming bronze, a further 10sec adrift.
The opening day of the athletics championships had opened in dramatic style as world decathlon champion Kevin Mayer’s bid for a first European title came to a shuddering halt as he pulled up in the opening 100m.
World record holder Mayer, twice world champion and a two-time Olympic silver medallist, had warned that he would withdraw from the gruelling two-day event should he feel even the slightest pain.
And so it proved as the Frenchman took the foot off the pedal after 70 metres of the 100m, the first of 10 events at Munich’s Olympic Stadium.
“I did a decathlon three weeks ago,” he said in reference to his world title-winning effort in Eugene, Oregon.
“I pulled up before injury. It’s very hard.”
The men’s marathon gold is up for grabs in the final event of the morning session, while the evening session at the Olympic Stadium sees medals on offer in both the men and women’s shot put, as well as the women’s 10,000m.
