Shot putter Scott Lincoln will join nearly 100 British and Northern Irish athletes at the Alexander Stadium as Birmingham becomes the first British city to host the European Athletics Championships.

Birmingham 2026 will see over 1,500 athletes from 49 nations compete for continental titles, with 50 championships contested over seven days of athletics action.

On what it means to be competing at these historic European Championships, 33-year-old Scott Lincoln said: “To be honest, I've not had much time to think about it because all eyes were on the Commonwealth Games at the time, but since I've come back, I've kind of digested it all, and now I think it'll feel a lot more real once I’m in the hotel tomorrow around all the other athletes, and that's when you start to get the pre-match nerves and the excitement and everything.”

“It’s obviously a huge team. My girlfriend [Freya Jones] has just been selected as well, which is super cool. She's going to be in the women's javelin. So it's going to be the first championships we're doing together as a couple. So, it’s super awesome to have a full team, and I'm sure the people that are in the team will give it a good crack, and they'll come out with positive outcomes, hopefully.”

This year’s event will be Lincoln’s third time competing at the European Athletics Championships after a tenth-place finish at Munich 2022 and a fourth-place finish at the most recent edition in Rome 2024.

He will be joined in the men’s shot put event by some of the world’s best, including world number one Italy’s Leonardo Fabbri, as well as Sweden’s Wictor Petersson and Poland’s Konrad Bukowiecki, who are both in the top 15 world rankings.

On what makes the European Championships so special, Northallerton-born Lincoln said: “I'd say probably just the calibre of athletes that are in Europe. There's no easy, especially in the shot put; there are no easy competitions, whether it be the Commonwealth Games, the world championships, the Olympics, or the Europeans. There are no easier championships for us.”

“They're all difficult because Europe's really strong with the Italians coming through, and then obviously me from Britain. There are a few other countries that are pretty strong. I think Sweden has got a couple of good guys and stuff like that. So I think for me, there's something prestigious about Europe and us coming together as a championships and it is almost like a mini world."

The European Championships come just over a week after the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games, where Lincoln won the bronze medal with a best throw of 20.99.

Lincoln, who was selected as team captain for England’s athletics squad, will therefore be looking to maintain his form going into the championships in his bid for his first European Championships medal.

When Lincoln was named team captain for the Commonwealth Games, the two-time Commonwealth Games medallist said: “It was an awesome privilege. Everyone voted, and being voted captain was a pretty cool experience. Although it doesn't actually give you anything different from the job you’ve got at hand, it definitely gives you a buzz that you're leading the team and people are backing you, and it's always an honour to not only put the England shirt on but to be voted as team captain. It was just incredible.”

I was trying to go around as much as I could and check in on people that didn't necessarily do as well as they wanted and congratulate the people who had got medals out of nowhere and things. So I like to think I did a good job, and I had a lot of positive things coming out about my speech that I did to the whole of the athletics teams. So, yeah, it was. It was good all in all, a huge honour of mine.

Alongside his hopes of medalling at this year’s European Championship, Lincoln is also hoping to be challenging for a new personal best in Birmingham.

His personal best currently sits at 21.31m, which he achieved in May 2024, and if he does make a new personal best, throwing it would mean a new season’s best, which currently stands at 21.16m from June.

On his hopes for his performance at the European Championships, two-time Olympian Lincoln said: “Ultimately, my coach and I have been sort of working on being precise in the circle, and that'll get you the distances. Not many people know, but the Commonwealth Games was quite a long way uphill, which is unusual for a championship. So I would say that the 20.99m I threw to come 3rd would probably have been a personal best.

“So there's no reason why I can't go and do that again at the Europeans, where it's more flat. So I think I'm in personal best shape, so to be pushing on towards my personal best and over would be incredible, and then I don't see why I can't go and throw a 22.”

The European Athletics Championships will take place at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham between 10-16th August 2026.

Scott Lincoln and the rest of the men’s shot put competitors will be competing on the opening day of the championships with coverage available across a range of BBC channels and BBC iPlayer.