Sweden leaves the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham with five medals—two gold, one silver, and two bronze. Armand Duplantis made history with his fourth consecutive European Championship gold, while Andreas Almgren and Samuel Pihlström made it a dream night for Sweden.
Sweden did not match its record of six medals from the 2006 European Championships. But it still ended up with five medals: gold to Armand Duplantis and Andreas Almgren, silver to Samuel Pihlström and a bronze medal for Wictor Petersson and Vanessa Kamga.
Mondo makes history – dedicates the gold medal to his grandmother
On Sunday, Duplantis became the first pole vaulter ever to win four European Championship titles—and four in a row, at that. After a fierce battle with Greece’s Emmanouil Karalis, the Swede secured the gold medal and then set a new championship record of 6.15 meters.
– The gold is for Grandma, he said afterward.
Duplantis's grandmother Ingrid Hedlund, who has been described as one of his biggest fans, passed away at the age of 92, one month before the championship.
Almgren crushed the opposition
As early as Saturday, Andreas Almgren had secured the European Championship gold medal in the 10,000 meters. The Swede led from the front and defeated his competitors in commanding fashion before stepping onto the top step of the podium on Sunday.
"I've been dreaming about this for a long time.".
Just minutes after Almgren’s gold-medal race, the next Swedish success came. Samuel Pihlström was in last place on the final lap of the 1,500-meter final but pulled off a tremendous sprint to take silver with a time of 3:36.16.
Five medals—and five fourth-place finishes
Pihlström was just eight hundredths of a second ahead of bronze medalist Andrew Coscoran. Sweden also had five fourth-place finishes during the championship—and thus came close to a much larger haul of medals.
As well as a fourth-place finish in the men's marathon.