Israel won the men's marathon team title at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham on Sunday with a combined time of 6:28:37, ahead of Germany on 6:29:03 and France on 6:32:12. The margin over Germany was 34 seconds across three runners and roughly 126 kilometres of racing.
Gashau Ayale took individual bronze in 2:09:21, ten seconds behind Germany's Amanal Petros, who won, and ten seconds off the course record. Tadesse Getahon finished fifth and Haimro Alame eighth, with further Israeli runners in 12th, 22nd and 35th.
The team event is decided by adding the times of a country's first three finishers, which is why depth beats a single star. Germany had the individual champion and still lost, because Israel's second and third men came home ahead of theirs.
This is the third time Israel has won this title, after 2022 and 2025, and Ayale has run in all three. He told Ynet he had told the other runners that the contest was between them and the Germans, and said he wanted to dedicate the medal to the Israeli people. They were the country's first medals of the week long championships.