The British 400m record-holder talks about an injury-hit year, a frustrating Commonwealth Games withdrawal and what a first outdoor title in Birmingham would mean to her.

Amber Anning has already broken a British record, won two Olympic relay bronzes and become the first British woman ever to win a world indoor 400m title. But ask her what a first outdoor gold medal in Birmingham this week would mean and none of that history seems to matter.

"Everything," she says. "I've been speaking about Europeans since last year. To go out there for my first outdoor title in front of a home crowd — that is like a dream come true. And then just to be able to back that up with a relay finish and to win that as well… there's a lot of rivalry out there. It's going to be a lot of fun out there. A big battle. So no, I'm excited. I've got so many family and friends who have made the effort to come up. My boyfriend from America is flying down, taking time off work. I've got a few other family and friends who are in and out of the champs who've booked their tickets. So yeah, I already feel the buzz now."

It is a rare thing for an athlete with Anning's background to still be chasing a first major outdoor title. The sprinter set her British record of 49.29 finishing fifth on her Olympic debut in Paris in 2024, before adding two relay bronzes — in the women's and mixed 4x400m — in the same Games. Then, in March last year, she went one better than any British woman in history, winning the world indoor 400m title in Nanjing in 50.60 seconds, edging out American Alexis Holmes by three hundredths of a second.

It came only a fortnight after disappointment at the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn, where Anning had cruised through her heat as a strong medal favourite only to be disqualified for a lane infringement. "It just feels like redemption after what happened at the Europeans," she said in Nanjing at the time.

It has not been a straightforward build-up to this coming week's European Championships in Birmingham. Anning has been managing hamstring problems for much of 2026, a season she describes as "plaguing."

Asked how many niggles she has been dealing, her answer is blunt: "My hamstrings."

She elaborates: "We've done a really great job of managing it. I had an injury leading into trials, but we got healthy and we're ready for that. The second one was a little bit unfortunate, but I've been up in Loughborough now for about two weeks, and yeah, it's just been night and day, honestly, from a treatment perspective. So the aim was to come here and make sure that we're ready to go for Birmingham, and that's kind of where we're at. I'm very confident with the team that we've done our job, so I'm in a great spot."

The toughest consequence of that injury-hit year was a decision Anning describes as one of the hardest of her career: withdrawing from the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. "Extremely frustrating," she says. "I spoke about missing indoors this year to focus on the two major champs, Commies and Europeans. Again, just with the injuries and where we're at, I just felt like I couldn't go out there and perform in the way — our body wasn't ready to go, and we had to make that decision.

"Obviously, being so close to Europeans, it was tough. But I wanted to make sure that I give someone else who's healthy an opportunity to go out there and represent England. It's always an honour to represent your country, so it wasn't an easy call."

Missing the Games entirely, rather than being able to watch from the stadium, added a further layer of frustration. "I did watch it. It was a bit hard, unfortunately, with having to pay and it not being televised. So I had my mum — I was up here, so my mum was sending me clips and sending me all the heats.

"Social media makes it very accessible to watch the races after they've happened now, so I was able to watch it, and I think it was a great performance. I would have loved to be amongst them and try and challenge for that gold medal. But no, I think the girls managed it really well. It would have been my first Commonwealth Games, and I was really upset to miss it. But now the focus is on Europeans."

That focus has already produced encouraging signs. Anning's most recent race, at the Rome Diamond League, came after roughly 10 weeks of rehabilitation and she was unsure quite what to expect. "I wasn't really sure what to expect coming out. Last year I opened up with 50.7 or 50.8 at the Grand Slams and this year it was 50.2 or 50.1, I think. So even without having those weeks to really put the race together, for me to come out and open with that was pretty strong — one of my fastest openers outside of college. That's kudos to a lot of the hard training, my coach's workouts, the preparation that went in.

"We took a lot of time with the rehab. We could have maybe come back earlier, but there wasn't a need — we pulled out of a few Diamond Leagues to make sure the body was ready."

She is quick to credit the support structure behind her recovery: "I'm just really well supported, which is so lovely, and not every athlete has that — particularly being funded and able to get my scans, come back, get another scan, and have the rehab all in place. I don't think I'd be in this position now, ready for Europeans, without them. A lot of love for British Athletics."

There is a bigger picture at play this week too. Anning believes a successful, sold-out Birmingham can only strengthen the case for the 2029 World Championships coming to London. "I was watching in the stands at the 2017 World Champs in London. I remember when Mo Farah was in the crowd on his last lap — the atmosphere, the electric noise, I could barely even hear myself think.

"For us to put that bid in yesterday and then have Europeans next week in Birmingham as a home champs — the timing is just everything, really. British fans — we may be biased — but we have some of the best in the world, and I feel like we're ready to go out there and use that home crowd advantage. It starts now, and it starts at Europeans. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone go out there and put in some great performances to help win that bid for 2029."

For now, though, her focus is squarely on her own race schedule: a bye straight to the individual semi-finals, hopefully a place in the final and then the women's 4x400m final on the closing Sunday. After a season defined by setbacks, Anning insists she has never doubted where it would lead. "Nothing was really going to stop me going to Europeans," she says. "This is what I'm going to remind myself, and I want to start line bidding for the European title."