On a quiet day of competition with no track finals, British athletes kept Britain at the top of the European Masters medal table.
Two days ago, Britain now has 91 golds, 75 silvers and 55 bronzes, Germany’s 84, 75 and 63 and France’s 51, 45 and 47.
Joe Willoughby won Britain’s only gold of the day in the W60 triple jump. The long jump silver medalist here, who was also second in the triple jump at last year’s world masters in Sweden and at the European Indoor and World Indoors in 2023, was finally rewarded for her great consistency with a clear victory.
Opening without a jump, a second-round effort of 9.65m gave her a clear advantage and she was able to get through the final two rounds with her nearest challenger, Hilde Bottin (9.21m) of Belgium.
Melanie Garland, who has already made more than 100 appearances in 2025, added to her medal tally this year. A world indoor masters triple jump medalist in Florida, she had already won a high jump gold medal in Madeira. His second round jump of 8.83m comfortably secured the bronze.
US-based World Masters indoor champion Alison Wilder won silver in the W35 triple jump with an opening leap of 11.84m. Romania’s Elena Popescu (12.50m) won gold over 12m with all five legal jumps for the double jumps here.
Louise Wood, who was fourth here in the long jump, moved up to second in the W55 triple jump to match her 2024 World Masters effort. She jumped 9.41m, giving her a clear second as Sweden’s Annika Sandström dominated with five ten-metre-plus jumps, peaking at 10.42m.
In the W75 triple jump, Sally Hine took second place with a second round jump of 6.90m. It was her fourth medal as she won the 80m hurdles and was also second in the 100m and third in the 200m. The gold went to the German Helen von Malzhan with 7.20 m.
World champion Iris Holder finished second in the W80 triple jump with her first jump of the year. In the final round, he jumped 5.56m, leading the previous five rounds, but Finland’s Varpu Holmberg jumped 5.66m, just behind him.
In the W45 age group, Emily Murray led the way for Great Britain with a PB of 9.97m to finish fourth as the gold went to Switzerland’s Laura Torino Imberti of 11.92m. Dash Newington finished sixth in the W40 triple jump with an effort of 11.07m.
Glyn Price won silver in the M60 pole vault. The Welshman has earned his M55 silver at the last two championships, having not achieved any heights at his two previous internationals in Sweden and Florida.
Here he cleared 3.45m and 3.60m on his second attempt, but crucially, his Spanish rival Francisco Hernandez Rivera cleared 3.45m on his first attempt before a similar second attempt clearance at a higher height and neither could clear 3.75m.
Ron Todd finished sixth with 3.00m. Decathlon sixth-place finisher Grant Stirling finished third in the M50 pole vault with a leap of 3.50m. The gold easily went to Sweden’s Jonas Esplund, who jumped 4.10m.
Warwick Dixon won silver in the M90 ​​discus to better his own over-90 British record with a throw of 21.12m in an event where eight over-90s were in action. Sweden’s winner Osten Edlund competed in the 1960 Olympics and still threw 28.08m with excellent technique, just missing the world record.
England’s oldest surviving schools champion had previously won medals here in the hammer and pull. Ian Bowles finished sixth in the M80 discus with a throw of 23.85m.
Great Britain also won medals in the weightlifting pentathlon. David McKay finished second in the M45 event with 3392 points. He threw 46.39m in the hammer, 11.08m in the shot put, 32.61m in the discus, 46.30m in the javelin and 13.06m in the shot put.
The gold went to Sylvain Weiler of France with 3495 points. Barry Hawksworth is also second in the M75s with 3323 points. His marks were 34.97m, 9.99m, 29.20m, 26.90m and 12.14m as Norway’s Arild Basterud easily won the fourth gold with 4337 points.
Saturday will see the final of the 800m individual medley, where Britain could have more than eight winners and a dozen medalists. M45 Paul Wright (2:00.90) and M60 Rob McHarg (2:16.59) qualified fastest.
In second place were M50 Charlie Thurstan (2:05.78), M55 Mark Symes (2:09.34) and M60 Andrew Ridley (2:16.99) and W60 Christine Anthony (2:46.01). M65 1500m champion Jed Turner (2:32.99) was third fastest.
However, W75 Sarah Roberts, W80 Betty Stacy, W70 W70 Anna Garnier, W65 W65 Jill Harrison, W40 W40 Ellie Stevens W35 Kat Sutton and M90 Colin Spivey had no sheet in their age group and went straight into the finals as they had already won medals here. in tournaments.
There are also more field finals on Saturday, plus a 20km walk and medley relay, while there is also a half marathon and relay on Sunday.
