Dozens of athletes, including Britain’s Amy Hunt, and thousands of spectators were caught up in a massive security operation involving armed police at the European Athletics Championships on Saturday night. One coach reported there were armed guards around the warm-up track and bus terminals, while police were seen searching buses. Another leading British coach said they got on a 10.15pm bus that only left at 11.45pm and arrived back at 12.30am.
The West Midlands police said a man in his 30s was arrested and remains in custody for questioning following suspicious behaviour. We understand the concern this may have caused and can confirm there was no immediate risk to the public. As always, our priority is the safety of the public and we want to thank everyone for their patience.” The first indication that anything was amiss came during Saturday night’s action when stadium announcers said that the six medal ceremonies would be postponed.
After the capacity 23,000 crowd had witnessed both British 4x100m relay teams claim gold, fans were then unable to get on buses to leave the venue, which is about five miles from the centre of Birmingham. Athletes, coaches and officials, including Britain’s relay gold medallists, were told to return to the high-performance centre at the Alexander Stadium to stay warm, with many only leaving around midnight. Joanne Ray, from Hampshire, told the Guardian that she had started queueing for the buses at 9.50pm but didn’t get on one until 11.15pm.
And we were given no information.” Ray and her husband, Ian, said they had paid more than £100 for their tickets for four evening’s worth of action, and estimated the pair had spent about £2,000 in total attending the championships. I said to them, ‘This is not normal. We would normally see a policeman on the beat, a bobby, if you’re lucky, not armed police.’” On Sunday morning, Finland’s Alisa Vainio won gold in the women’s marathon in a championship record 2hrs 22.26min, an impressive time particularly on such a hilly course, with Britain’s Abbie Donnelly taking bronze in 2:27.33.
Britain also won gold in the team event. Germany’s Amanal Petros won gold in the men’s event, setting a new championship record of 2:09.11 after a solo breakaway. He then jogged to the finish ahead of Italy’s Pietro Riva, who finished seven seconds back, with Israel’s Gashau Ayale just behind in third.
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