• Budapest withdrawal leaves Birmingham in line to hold event
• Athletics not slated to be included in multi-sport games in 2026

Birmingham is set to build on the legacy of the Commonwealth Games by being named as the host of the 2026 European Athletics Championships. The news could be confirmed as soon as Friday after the city’s only rival, Budapest, told European Athletics that it was withdrawing from the bidding process.

However the Guardian understands that at this stage it may be purely a standalone athletics competition – and not part of the wider multi-sport European Championships format that proved so successful in Glasgow and Berlin in 2018 and in Munich this summer.

• Eilish McColgan’s 10km road record times are invalidated
• Organisers apologise for ‘human error’ in laying out course

Great Scottish Run organisers have apologised to Scottish runner Eilish McColgan after her European and British 10km road record times she ran earlier this month were invalidated after it was found the course was 150 metres short due to “human error”.

McColgan finished the 2 October Glasgow race in 30 minutes and 18 seconds, beating her previous record mark by one second. However organisers The Great Run Company say the course was “not laid out in line with the previously agreed plans”.

• UK Athletics says Ujah will be selected if times are fast enough
• Runner’s failed drugs test lost his team Tokyo 2020 relay silver

CJ Ujah will be welcomed back into Britain’s 4x100m relay squad if he runs fast enough to earn selection after his doping ban, UK Athletics’ new technical director, Stephen Maguire, has confirmed. However, Maguire admitted there may need to be mediation with Ujah and some of his teammates to make sure “they are on the same page”.

Ujah ran the lead leg when Team GB’s relay men won silver at last year’s Olympic Games only to test positive for two banned substances, which led to him receiving a 22-month ban and the team being stripped of their medals.

Sprinter cleared of deliberately taking performance-enhancing drugs says he always believed the truth would come out

“Obviously, I made a mistake,” says CJ Ujah quietly, as he breaks his 14-month silence on the failed drugs test that led to Team GB’s biggest Olympic doping scandal. “But people make mistakes. I am not a cheat.”

As all that pent-up frustration and pain begins to uncoil, revelation follows revelation. How it was a basic amino acid supplement – bought off Amazon for £10 during lockdown – that caused his positive test in Tokyo. How he thought the email telling him the news was a hoax. And, just as remarkably, that he was not tested in the buildup to last year’s Games, despite being among the world’s leading sprinters.

• Failed test ‘not intentional’ due to ‘contaminated supplement’
• Ban cut to 22 months but team still lose Tokyo 2020 relay silver

The British 100m sprinter CJ Ujah has been cleared of deliberately taking banned drugs by the Athletics Integrity Unit and the World Anti-Doping Agency, and will be free to return to competition next year.

Ujah led off Team GB’s men’s 4x100m relay team as they won silver at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 only to then test positive for two prohibited substances, ostarine and S-23. It led to the British team being stripped of their medals – and to Ujah facing a four-year ban.

• Kenyan defends her title in Chicago with dominant victory
• Compatriot Benson Kipruto cruises to victory in men’s race

Kenyan Ruth Chepngetich defended her Chicago Marathon title in a dominant display on Sunday, breaking the tape in 2hr 14min 18sec, as her compatriot Benson Kipruto cruised to victory in the men’s race in 2:04:24.

Chepngetich built up an early lead and had established an astonishing 3min 42sec advantage over the chasing pack by the halfway point. Charging to the line with no one else was in sight, the 2019 world champion was in a race against the clock as she tried to break the world record but came up 14 seconds short of compatriot Brigid Kosgei’s mark, set on the same flat course three years ago.

Who hit hat-tricks? Who won in Wales? Who can’t score?

Unnamed man from south-east England collapsed in late stages of race and died in hospital

A 36-year-old man who collapsed while running the London Marathon on Sunday has died, organisers have announced.

The man, who has not been named and was from south-east England, collapsed between mile 23 and mile 24 of the race.

Kostiantyn Bidnenko and Viktoriya Kiose’s emotional challenge was one of thousands of extraordinary stories

On a day when the capital’s streets basked in permanent smiles and unexpected sunshine, more than 40,000 runners from 18 to 89 created their own special London Marathon memories. Some stories, though, were even more extraordinary than others.

At the front of the field, the 23-year-old Ethiopian, Yalemzerf Yehualaw, became the youngest ever women’s winner of the race despite injuring her hip and knee when tripping over a speed bump six miles from the finish.

• Yalemzerf Yehualaw of Ethiopia triumphs in women’s elite race
• Amos Kipruto beats Leul Gebresilase to line in men’s race

First she flew like superwoman. Then she ran like one. And, on the streets of London, a new star being born as 23-year-old Yalemzerf Yehualaw became the youngest ever winner of the London marathon.

What made the Ethiopians victory even more impressive was that she tripped up spectacularly on a sleeping policeman speed bump with six miles left. It sent her sprawling along the tarmac, and caused her to lose at least 25 metres on the field. Afterwards, Yehualaw confirmed the face plant had caused a bump on her head, as well as hip and knee. “It hurt,” she said, smiling.

• Live updates the 26.2m course in the UK’s capital
• Get in touch! Email Daniel or tweet @DanielHarris

Morning all! Anyone for 26 miles 385 yards? No? Good. Luckily for us, though, some hardy folk are into precisely that, prostrating their pain for our entertainment lest we pass an hour or two of weekend with no live sport. Off they go, so off we go.

Sadly, any preview of the men’s competition begins with who’s not here: well, sort of. Eliud Kipchoge, who broke the world record last week in Berlin, isn’t racing, which isn’t ideal, but is handing out mini-marathon medals, which is great. And maybe his lack of running will turn out to be a good thing, because this might just be the last time we see the great Kenenisa Bekele run. It seems unlikely he’ll trouble the podium, but with a genius of his aspect, well, who knows.

• Marathon record holder said Farah ‘can still win big races’
• Briton had to pull out of London Marathon with hip injury

Mo Farah has been told to ignore any thoughts of retirement by Eliud Kipchoge, despite being forced to pull out of Sunday’s London Marathon through a hip injury. Farah has only raced seven times in three years, largely due to a series of niggles, and will turn 40 in March. However, Kipchoge, who last week lowered his own world marathon record by running 2hr 01min 09 secs, believes that the Briton still has more big race victories in him.

“Absolutely Mo Farah can still keep going,” said Kipchoge, who is in London to watch the race. “I want to wish him a quick recovery from his injury. Injuries are part of the challenges of elite sport. My advice is to recover from your injury and come back. Mo Farah has a lot more to give. I think he will come back stronger. The training is there and after the injury he can come back and show the world what is actually in him.”

• Bekele, 40, will run in London Marathon on Sunday
• Eliud Kipchoge set marathon world record last week

Kenenisa Bekele insists he still deserves to be considered the greatest distance runner in history despite Eliud Kipchoge’s brilliant world marathon record in Berlin last week.

The 40-year-old Bekele, who will run the London Marathon on Sunday, paid tribute to his great rival’s achievements over 26.2 miles but he also made it clear that if performances on the track, cross-country and world records were taken into account, he should be considered without equal.

The number of veteran runners is on the up and they’re leaving the times of their predecessors for dust

• ‘A sea of positivity’: older women boost London Marathon numbers

This year’s London marathon will have record numbers of veteran participants, with a near-doubling of the number of female runners aged 60 to 69 registering to run since 2018. As the number of veteran runners has steadily increased, performance has improved at a staggering rate.

In May, Jo Schoonbroodt, a 71-year-old from Maastricht nicknamed “the Grey Kenyan”, broke the over-70s record with a time of 2hr 54min 19sec. Last year, the Japanese runner, Mariko Yugeta, took the female over-60s record down to 2hr 52min 1sec, faster than the overall men’s world record in 1909.

Pandemic, daily pressures and Paula Radcliffe cited as reasons for 65% rise in over-50 female runners

As 50,000 London Marathon runners take to the capital’s streets on Sunday, spectators may notice a few more grey (or purple, see above) hairs poking out from under the caps and beanies.

New analysis has revealed the number of female runners aged 50 and older finishing the race has increased by 65% since 2018. It comes alongside a 91% increase in the number of female runners aged 60 to 69 registering to run, a demographic change which organisers say will be hard to ignore.

• British runner not fit to take part in Sunday’s race
• Event has been hit by high-profile withdrawals

Mo Farah has pulled out of the London Marathon, leaving Sunday’s race devoid of its biggest star and raising further questions about whether the four-time Olympic champion’s competitive career is over.

The 39-year-old broke the news on Wednesday evening after revealing he had recently suffered tightness in his right hip and was not fit to compete. Incredibly, Farah is the sixth major withdrawal from the race, leaving organisers understandably reeling.

• Hugh Brasher says Farah should not make hasty retirement call
• ‘We should be allowing Mo time to decide what he wants’

Mo Farah has been urged not to make any hasty decisions about retirement and to take inspiration from world record holder Eliud Kipchoge when he returns to run the London Marathon on Sunday.

Farah, who turns 40 in March, has looked a shadow of his best over the last couple of seasons. However the London Marathon’s event director, Hugh Brasher, said it would be wrong to write him off after a couple of poor performances.

The two-time Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge has bettered his own world record by 30 seconds at the Berlin Marathon. The Kenyan star clocked a time of two hours, one minute and nine seconds to beat his previous men's world record time of 2:01:39 set on the same course in 2018. Kipchoge has now won 15 of his 17 career marathons, including two Olympic triumphs and 10 major titles.

• Eliud Kipchoge takes 30 seconds off his men’s marathon world record in Berlin

• Kenyan smashes his own record with run of 2:01:09
• Kipchoge has now won 15 of his 17 career marathons

Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge has shattered his own marathon world record, winning the Berlin event with a time of two hours, one minute and nine seconds.

The 37-year-old’s finishing time to win the race on Sunday was some 30 seconds faster than his previous world-best mark, set in the German capital four years ago.

• Cosmas Matolo and Chalu Deso Gelmisa come second and third
• All three better previous fastest time in Australian races

Kenyan Moses Kibet has claimed a historic victory in the Sydney marathon as the top three finishers all bettered the previous fastest time on Australian soil.

Kibet clocked a winning time of two hours, seven minutes and three seconds on Sunday, crossing the line just two seconds ahead of countryman Cosmas Matolo.