Jakob Ingebrigtsen wins fourth straight 5,000m European title after 11-month injury lay-off

Jakob Ingebrigtsen won a tactical men’s 5,000m final on the opening night of the European Championships in Birmingham, England.

It is the Norwegian’s fourth-straight title in the event and marks an exceptional comeback from an Achilles injury which had caused him to miss nearly a year.

The 25-year-old had the strongest finishing kick in the field, closing the last 400m in 54.94s. He went from fourth place at 4,900m to first at the line with a big surge, overtaking Germany’s Florian Bremm (silver), world 10,000m champion Jimmy Gressier (fourth), and Frenchman Etienne Daguinos (bronze).

Ingebrigtsen’s winning time of 13:15.29s reflects the championship nature of the race, in which the pace progressed throughout. The opening kilometre was covered in 2:45.20s, with the next three such splits clocked at 2:41.31s, 2:40.58s and 2:41.56s. Thirteen men were still in contention with a lap and a half to go, and that was whittled down to seven in the final 400m.

Of all Ingebrigtsen’s victorious — he now holds 15 European golds and has never lost a continental final — this is the most surprising. Not since the World Championships in Tokyo, Japan, last September, had he last raced, plagued by an Achilles injury which had also disrupted much of his 2025. There, he was eliminated in the heats and posted his worst finish position in a race since 2017.

“With 600m to go, I knew I was going to win,” he told BBC Sport. “I was hoping I wouldn’t get too tired, I worked on my breathing, trying to run smooth, but you never know. In a race like this, people around me are very strong.

“Like I was hoping, a lot of the people I was expecting to show up, showed up and gave a good fight towards the end. (It’s) a great experience, being back healthy and racing again, feeling somewhat good and like myself — it’s something I’ve really worked towards the last year or so.”

“Of course I doubted myself every day and every minute leading up to the last lap,” he said of his recovery. He added that the last few weeks have been “just on the limit” of what his body could handle in training.

That this race unfolded in a progressive manner suited Ingebrigtsen, who is fourth on the all-time 1,500m list and the fifth-fastest European man ever over 5,000m. However he had not run in a paced race since February 2025 (when he ran a mile world record indoors) and, as such, the extent of his speed and fitness were unknown — his participation in the event had been confirmed just two weeks ago.

Ingebrigtsen crossed the line with a time of 13:15.29s (Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Ingebrigtsen spent the opening half of the 12.5-lap race at the back of the 23-man field, alongside elder brother Filip, and Gressier. Only around the 3,000m mark did he start to move up the pack, with Filip dropping out two-thirds of the way through.

It’s real redemption for the 2021 Olympic 1,500m gold medallist who almost a decade ago became the youngest man to break the four-minute mile barrier, aged 16. He’s won seven of nine major 5,000m finals — only losing at world championships in 2019 and 2025 — and, over this distance this is his fourth European gold medal in a row, dating back to 2018, when elder brother Henrik took silver.

The past two years have, in performance terms, been Ingebrigtsen’s most challenging, partly due to the injury and also the court case against his father and former coach Gjert.

Following a trial in spring 2025 — just after Ingebrigtsen won European and world indoor double gold over 1,500m and 3,000m — Gjert was convicted on one charge of assault of Ingrid, his daughter and Jakob’s younger sister. He was acquitted on other charges of abuse in close relationships against Jakob and Ingrid.

Ingebrigtsen is scheduled to race over 1,500m at the Zurich Diamond League later this month, which would be his first time in that competition since September 2024.