Defeat in Stockholm and injury in London have made 2026 a difficult year for Duplantis, but after needing just one attempt of 5.60m to qualify for the final he looked back to his best. Entering the medal event at 5.55m and making it look easy, he then chose to pass at 5.70m, as did the second-best of all time, Emmanouil Karalis of Greece.
Mondo then cleared 5.85m with over 13cm to spare, as the Greek matched him again. The pair both passed at 5.95m, by which point France's Baptiste Thiery was the only other athlete still going, but his three failures at that height meant he would be going home with the bronze medal.
However, Duplantis suffered a failure at 6.00m, a height 31cm down on his world record, but that was merely a blip, as he cleared it at the second time of asking before needing just one attempt to clear 6.10m and equal his own championship record from 2024.
Karalis continued to go toe-to-toe with the Swede, even in failure, as he too needed two goes at 6.00m. He then looked to have matched the 6.10m clearance, only to catch the bar on his way down. Duplantis then put the pressure on, going clear at 6.15m and setting another record despite giving the bar a wobble. His opponent Karalis then went straight to 6.15m, but failed once again.
The Athens man then gave himself one attempt at 6.20m to retake the lead, but another near miss meant Duplantis had won the European title for the fourth time.
There was no world record attempt from the 26-year-old this time, but his gold sees Sweden finish their European championships in eighth place on the medal table, with two golds, one silver and two bronze medals.
Askag seventh as injury denies Hallberg Hossain
Maja Askag and Ayla Hallberg Hossain both qualified for the long jump final, but in securing a top-12 place with her final jump, Hallberg Hossain injured her thigh and would not be fit enough to participate in the final. Askag began her final with a 6.66m jump, before going 3cm further in the second round.
However, over her next four attempts, she was unable to improve on 6.69m, and finished the event in seventh place. A jump of 7.00m exactly won gold for Italy's Larissa Iapichino.
Magnusson 10th in steeplechase
Fifth place in his heat earnt Leo Magnusson a place in the men's 3000m steeplechase final, making him the final Swedish athlete on the track for the week. He settled in at the back during a steady first kilometre, before starting to work his way past the stragglers through the middle 1000m. However, as the pace increased late on, he was unable to get amongst the medal contenders, crossing the line in 10th place in 8:32.87, just over seven seconds down on the winner, Frederick Ruppert of Germany.
Hassan takes Swedish fourth-places to five
The final morning of action saw the marathon races take place on the streets of Birmingham, and there was more heartbreak for Sweden, as Suldan Hassan finished fourth in the men's race, taking the nation's tally of fourth places over the week to five.
In the final kilometres, Hassan was part of a group of eight chasing the leader, Amanal Petros of Germany, before he and two other athletes, Pietro Riva of Italy and Gashau Ayale of Israel, left the others behind approaching the final hill.
Petros had just enough time to milk the applause and cross the line first in 2:09:11, but as he celebrated, Riva and Ayale sprinted for the line to take silver and bronze, respectively, while Hassan didn't quite have enough to go with them, finishing an agonising fourth in 2:09:24.
Hassan joins Fanny Roos (shot put), Daniel Stahl (discus) Oskar Edlund (400m hurdles) and Perseus Karlstrom in finishing fourth for Sweden at Birmingham 2026.
Ebba Tulu Chala finished 13th in 2:11:06, while Archie Casteel crossed the line 48th with a time of 2:23:34. Sadly for Samuel Tsegay Tesfamariam, he was one of eight runners not to finish.
In the women's marathon, Hanna Lindholm was the best-placed Swedish runner, crossing the line in a time of 2:36:42 to finish 25th, over 14 minutes down on the winner from Finland, Alisa Vainio, who set a new championship record of 2:22:26. Carolina Johnson finished 40th in 2:41:21, while Samrawit Mengsteab did not finish the race.