The half marathon and marathon replaced the 20-kilometre and 35-kilometre race-walking events at the 2026 European Athletics Championships in Birmingham.
Birmingham introduced two new championship race-walking distances: a half marathon and a marathon. This changed the road-walking programme from the 20km and 35km distances used at recent editions.
The new format continued the championships’ use of road events outside the main stadium. Race walking was therefore affected by a programme redesign even though track and field events such as the 20km-style endurance challenge remained central to the sport’s identity.
The change can be confused with the 2024 European Championships in Rome, where the half marathon was used in the road-running programme while the race-walking events followed a different structure. Birmingham’s innovation specifically concerned the walking distances.