Andreas Almgren took down a championship record which had stood since 1978 with a 27:23.44s run over 10,000m at the European Championships in Birmingham, England.Initially the race looked to be a tactical affair, as a clustered field went through the opening kilometer in 3:16.9s (which is 32:50 pace). By the end of the third lap, Almgren, 31, had moved to the front and started to push the pace, stringing the field out and whittling the lead group down to five before the halfway point — which they hit in 14:05.7s.Almgren’s seventh and eighth kilometres were his fastest of the race (2:38.5s and 2:34.6s), which put a gap between him and eventual silver medallist Dominic Lobalu of Switzerland, who won this event in 2024. Behind them, world 10,000m champion Jimmy Gressier tailed Italy’s Yemaneberhan Crippa in a battle for bronze. It was Gressier, the Frenchman, who emerged victorious with a late kick, more than 40 seconds after Almgren had crossed the line.This is the Swede’s first senior international title — he took 10,000m bronze at the World Championships last September — and his aggressive approach meant he chased down the championship record of Martti Vainio, going a little over seven seconds faster than that time from 48 years ago.“It was quite amazing,” Almgren said in an interview on the track. He felt “like I was dying” in the final 2km, and laughed that it “might have been a stupid run (but) was quite successful in the end.”After a cagey, tactical start, Andreas Almgren pushed a formidable pace in the second half of the race (Sona Maleterova/Getty Images)Lobalu was gracious in giving up his continental title: “Almgren was too strong. I couldn’t hold that pace any longer. The faster pace suited me. I wasn’t sure how fast it would be but I was less confident of doing well if it was a slower race.”