Alisa Vainio won the women’s marathon at Birmingham 2026 in 2:22:26.
The Finnish runner’s time was a championship record. Hungary’s Lili Anna Vindics-Tóth finished second in 2:27:21, while Great Britain’s Abbie Donnelly took bronze in 2:27:33. Vainio’s winning margin was more than four minutes.
A marathon is officially 42.195 kilometres long. Championship marathons are road races, so weather, course layout and pacing strategy can strongly influence performances compared with track events.
The women’s marathon also produced a team classification. Great Britain and Northern Ireland won that team title, but the individual gold medal went to Vainio, illustrating why individual and team results should not be conflated.