diff --git a/.github/workflows/python-ci.yml b/.github/workflows/python-ci.yml
index e6efb56..258dfd5 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/python-ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/python-ci.yml
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ on:
 jobs:
   test:
     name: Python CI - test
-    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    runs-on: ubuntu-24.04  # 3.8/3.9 have no setup-python builds for ubuntu-26.04
 
     strategy:
       matrix: