The inaugural European Running Championships takes place in Brussels-Leuven one year today on 12-13 April 2025!
Europe’s elite athletes will be joined by recreational and club-level athletes from all across the world for a two-day running festival - the biggest running event to be held in Belgium - which comprises a 10km, half marathon and marathon.
More than 7000 runners - including 5000 in the marathon which already makes next year’s race the biggest ever marathon to be held on Belgian soil - pre-registered to be part of the European Running Championships while the general registration link for all three races opened on Thursday (11) morning.
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Register now to be part of the 2025 European Running Championships here
Individual and team medals will be on offer in the men’s and women’s 10km, half marathon and marathon but one of the unique aspects of the European Running Championships is the introduction of the Country Ranking competition in each race, a classification which is based on the top-25 fastest aggregate times of the elite athletes and the mass participants.
Speaking on the launch of the newest major event on the European Athletics calendar, European Athletics President Dobromir Karamarinov said: "The European Running Championships symbolises my vision of a sport that really is for everyone. Young and old, male and female, fast and slow, big and small, elite and amateur will all compete together and simultaneously in mass marathon, half marathon and 10km races, with global and national ranking places on offer.
"For too long, athletics has been seen as a rarefied activity, the preserve of only the super-fit and the super-gifted. All children, and a growing number of adults across our continent, take part in athletics, in the form of recreational running, every day. Yet many of them do not think of themselves as athletes. I am determined to bridge this gap."
Flemish Minister for Sport Ben Weyts said: "The European Running Championships will get masses of Flemish people moving. This is exactly the reason why we have been bringing a growing number of top sporting events to Flanders in recent years.
"Watching sport makes you do sport. Running has always been an easily accessible sport and has become even more attractive now. You will be able to cross the province of Flemish Brabant together with top runners. I am extremely delighted that the biggest marathon in our country’s history will soon take place in my very own province."
A royal start for the marathon
The marathon course at the European Running Championships will begin in Brussels against the grand and imposing backdrop of the Royal Palace, one of the city’s most recognisable landmarks.
After a 10km loop of Brussels, the point-to-point marathon course will conclude in the city of Leuven at the Parkpoort, the same location for the finish of the World Road Cycling Championships in 2021.
The half marathon and 10km races will start and finish in Leuven. One of the participants will be the Mayor of Leuven Mohamed Ridouani.
"I will take part too and I invite all inhabitants of Leuven to appear at the start with me. These European Running Championships in our city will allow us to present our city as a European city of sport again. It will undoubtedly be a high day of sport and as far as I’m concerned, the beginning of a marathon tradition in Leuven,” he said.