Great Britain’s 10km and 200m runners were in high spirits on Thursday when action resumed after a day off in Madeira.
Along with successes in the long jump, pentathlon, shooting and javelin, Great Britain won an unprecedented 23 golds in one day, as well as numerous silvers and bronzes.
Britain now has 89 golds (and 65 silvers and 51 bronze) and is well ahead of Germany (78, 68, 61) and France (50, 42, 45) in the medals table. Only the 800m and the relay remain on the track for the final three days.
The 10km runners won 11 golds with W40 Ellie Stevens, W60 Claire Elms, W75 Sarah Roberts, M65 Paul Mingay and M75 Ron Kettle, and the W40, W45, W65, W70, W75 and M65 teams.
The eight 200m runners who secured gold were: W40 Lisa Boland, W55 Christine Harrison-Bloomfield, W70 Helen Godsell, W85 Kathleen Stewart, M45 Gavin Stephens, M55 Darren Scott, M65 John Wright and M70 Stephen Peters.
Stevens was the favorite of the 10km runners as the W40 won the women’s overall race by 98 seconds in the testing city center of Funchal, in a high-humidity race that started at 8pm.
Already a winner of the 1500m, 5000m and 10000m (with the 800m and half marathon still to come), she finished more than 400m clear of Poland’s Eva Jagielska (36:17). Stevens, who also dominated the World Masters in March, won her fifth gold in Madeira as she led Lisa Gawthorne (37:52) and Stephanie Fauset (41:56) to clinch team gold over Ireland and Ukraine.
Another dominant Roberts won his fifth and sixth W75 gold of the championships. Already a silver medalist in the 1500m, 5000m and 10000m, as well as silver medals in the 400m and cross country, she was an easy winner in 46:11. Caroline Gale (fifth, 57:15) and Anne Dockery (sixth, 57:57) also won team gold medals for the country, with Britain taking the W75 team title by 24 minutes from Germany. Cross-county champion Eileen Kenny of Ireland (49:09) was second.
Elms, who was yesterday awarded by the European Masters Association as the best middle distance runner for 2024, won his third and fourth golds and fifth and sixth medals of the week after winning six gold medals at the World Masters in Florida in March.
A virus plus adjusting to the hot weather made for a relatively disappointing start to the championships, with him losing big leads in his first two events and having to settle for minor medals. However, here she followed up her 5000m victory with a clear victory on the road and her 40:25 gave her easy W60 gold, beating her 10,000m counterpart and Austria’s Sabina Hofer (41:06).
Elms moved up to the W45 age group for team purposes and, along with W45 runner-up Zoe Oldfield (38:21) and W50 Valerie Woodland (44:05), Great Britain took team gold by 14 minutes from Germany and Sweden.
Great Britain’s W65 team of fourth-placed Sian Davies (48:05), sixth-placed and all-around medalist Susan Payne (50:42) and Fiona Bishop (52:04) narrowly won gold from Ireland and Germany.
The Great Britain W70 team of Dot Kesterton (50:24), Louise Rowley (51:15) and Sarah Ellen (53:05) also won gold. Kesterton and Rowley took individual silver and bronze from Austria’s Margret Goethnauer (49:40), who secured the gold three minutes behind larger category winner Roberts.
Great Britain’s W35 team of Vicky Penn (43:56), Charlotte Woodger (44:16) and Emily Proto (44:52) finished second behind Poland.
The overall men’s winner was Poland’s M35 Andrzej Starzynski, who dominated the cross country and won the race in 31:15 by 16 seconds.
Mingai followed up his M65 5000m win with another well-paced effort. He clocked 38:05 and finished almost half a minute ahead of France’s Dominique Delbay (38:33) and Malcolm Eustace (39:43). Thanks to Minga, Eustace and Karl Hick (43:14), Britain took the M65 team gold medal by just 27 seconds from France, with Italy third.
World champion Ron Kettle, who skipped previous events by winning his category at the Berlin Marathon, took M75 gold in 45:25. 10,000m champion Jean Thomas of France was second in 45:58. 5,000m medalist Carl Hardman (32:29), second M40, held off Italy’s Umberto Percy (32:29) to lead Britain third in the M35 class.
Brian Wilder was third M50 in just under 33:54, but with 5000m medalist Anthony O’Brien (34:20) and Gareth Raven (34:22) they were 90 seconds adrift of winners Spain.
M60 5000m and 10,000m champion Chris Upson had to settle for third here in 37:05 as the gold medal went to Pauric McKean of Ireland (35:54). The team took the fourth place in the most competitive age group of the championships. Spain won a gold medal again.
Great Britain’s M55 team finished third, with their M70 team (led by fourth-placed Gavin Bain (42:17) finishing second by just 17 seconds) and the M80 team led by fourth-placed Geoff Newton (54:30).
Great Britain’s 200m runners also dominated Europe. Lisa Boland completed the W40 sprint double to win in 25.27/-1.3, well ahead of Germany’s Sina Lorenz Hansler-Hueg in 25.86. That time is a UK record, bettering her 25.34 from last year’s world championships.
Another who did the 100m and 200m was 22.85 in 1999, Christine Harrison-Bloomfield. Here he won W55 gold by over a second in 26.65/0.2. The senior World Indoor and Outdoor Championships representative finished almost ten meters behind Germany’s Iris Opitz in 27.76, while 2024 European Masters Sprint Athlete of the Year Esther Kolas was third in 27.80 to win the 400m here. Popsie Wootten finished 6th in 28.81.
The third British woman to achieve a sprint double was W70 Helen Godsell. The day after winning the award for the best European relay for the British team, she won the 200m in 32.29/-1.3, well clear of Sweden’s Lily Wiesen’s 33.00.
Kathleen Stewart became the first Briton to win a sprint triple here as she easily won the W85 race in 42.30/-1.6, 15 seconds clear of Greek Smaragda Mandila’s 57.37.
First British winner over the distance, Gavin Stevens, completed the 400m/200m dual in the M45 category with a clear victory in a time of 23.06/-1.7, leaving him three meters clear of Assaf Malta of Israel (23.36). 100m champion Leon Martinez of Sweden ran 22.75 in the semi-finals.
The next British champion came in the M55 category as Darren Scott once again completed the sprint double as his 23.88/-1.6 gave him two meters on Italian Claudio Fausti’s 24.12. Russell Whiting finished fifth in 24.92.
Although Britain’s most dominant age group was the M65, with five of the top six athletes (and another Brit missing out on the final by just a hundredth of a second).
Predictably, world record holder and 100m/400m champion John Wright completed his sprint treble with an easy victory in 24.68/-1.4 over Pat Logan’s 25.99.
Ricardo Huskisdon (27.10), Tennyson Janes (27.25) and Stuart Lynn (27.39) finished fourth through sixth. Steve Peters equaled Wright’s trio with a brilliant 25.97/-1.8 for a British and European record. Juan Rodriguez was second in 26.86 and John Brown was sixth in 28.24.
Stacey Downey (25.18) was a clear second in the W35 to Olympic 4x400m relay silver medalist Iga Baumgart-Wittan in 24.75/-1.1. Leh had previously won the 400 m. Katie Lord finished fifth in 25.91.
W50 400m champion Tracy Ashworth finished second in 26.41 as Sweden’s Helen Hermundstad (25.79/0.3) completed the sprint double. 300m hurdles champion Sarah Lodes finished sixth in 27.41. Italy’s Monica Dessi won the W60 race with a time of 29.33/-0.1, while Julie Hicken took the bronze medal with a time of 29.98. France’s Michel Peroni took gold in the W75 race with a time of 35.18/-1.0.
80m hurdles champion Sally Hine, who was second in the 100m, completed her medal haul with bronze in 36.43. 1500m, 5000m and 10,000m champion Sarah Roberts was a respectable fourth in 36.99 and couldn’t quite match her heat tone. 200m hurdles champion Emily McMahon (37.05) rounded out three Britons in the top five.
Great Britain won two medals in the M50 category with Spain’s Jose Albert (23.33/-2.0) narrowly edging out 100m champion TJ Ossai (23.35) and Mike Coogan third in 23.59.
Fridholm Adorf easily won M80 gold in 30.15/-0.4, but Britain still claimed two medals through Victor Nowell (33.67) and James Smirh (34.05). Also, Alan Forse (36.36) finished sixth.
Germany’s Roland Groger dominated the M60 race in 24.88/-1.4, but Vincent Ely was third in 25.68. Daniel Hill was fourth in the M40 200m in 23.29 in a race won by Greece’s Alexandros Kokinis in 22.56/-1.3.
W65 100m champion Nicole Alexis of France won the 200m in 29.72 from Ireland’s Edel Maguire, who previously won gold in the 400m and high jump and was second in the 100m. The M35 race was won by Italy’s Bocar Baggi in 22.23/-2.1, with Byron Robinson sixth in 22.83.
The Brits had a one-two punch in a big battle between former European champion Alan Leiper and this year’s world indoor champion Michael Hausler, who also beat Leiper at the British Championships. Hausler led the first round as 13.06m gave him the edge over his rival’s 12.51m, but Leiper responded with a second round of 13.09m.
That held the advantage until Hausler regained the lead in the fifth round at 13.20m, where Leiper cleared 13.05m. It was all down to the final throw and Leiper’s 13.44m gave her the gold.
Robert Stephenson opened the M70 long jump competition with a jump of 4.56m and took the lead before a second round jump of 4.87/0.6 ​​sealed the gold and also gave him a British record. It was her first international event since the 2013 World Championships in Brazil, when she won silver in the M60 300m steeplechase.
The second is the Romanian Adrian Boy (4.69 m). Alistair Hill, second in the M75 decathlon, went one better in the javelin, an individual event he doesn’t normally focus on. After throwing 34.15m in the ten-event event here, he threw 33.48m in the second round, just shy of Poland’s Jerry Krawczyk’s 33.00m effort, as less than 76cm covered the three medalists.
Dash Newington finished second in the W40 high jump with a jump of 1.50m, while France’s Marie Plass took the gold (1.55m). Dougie Graham finished second in the M45 pole vault with a leap of 4.10m, while Germany’s Thomas Riete took the gold with 4.25m.
Maurice Fox finished third in the M60 shot with a throw of 13.91m to finish second, but Germany’s Norbert Demmel (14.98m) won easily. Guy Clark was sixth in the W65 high jump with a leap of 1.16m.
In the W40 pentathlon, Kathryn Holdsworth won the gold medal with 2,758 points, giving her an 84-point margin of victory. Her throws were 37.64m in the hammer, 11.84m in the shot put, 32.99m in the discus, 27.05m in the javelin and 12.55m in the shot put. Germany’s Anna Schuppel (2674) was second. Suzanne Wise finished fourth (2598), her 14.71m easily the best shot put.
Shot put champion Paula Williams was sixth in the W50 throws with 3048 points, a career best of 13.24m. Ruth Bird was sixth in the W60 with 2869 points.
