Great Britain strengthened its position at the top of the medals table on the final day of the European Masters Championships in Madeira.
Great Britain won gold medals in age groups ranging from 35 to 90. It was almost certainly the biggest medal haul ever by a British team at a World or European Championship.
Although the number of events and age groups is seemingly increasing as athletes seem to get older, Britain’s 20 gold lead over the rest of Europe is unprecedented.
Great Britain won 132 golds, 102 silvers and 77 bronzes, easily ahead of Europe’s other big hitters, Germany (110, 98, 82).
France (65, 59, 65), Spain (58, 63, 65) and Italy (51, 46, 36) complete the top eight.
The final day was built around the half marathon and 4x400m relay and several field events.
Great Britain won 23 medals in the half marathon, but just under eight in the relay.
Britain’s individual star performer at the championships and on the day was Ellie Stevens. The US-based Birchfield Harrier won her sixth individual gold and team gold here and in the 10km, her eight golds make her the most successful woman at the championships.
Already a winner of the W40 10,000m, 1500m, 5000m, 10km and 800m, she added the half marathon by winning the overall women’s race by almost six minutes a mile. The race started at 8am in the dark with 95 per cent humidity, but the blazing sun soon came out making conditions difficult.
Stephens, who can lay claim to being Britain’s fastest over-40 half marathoner ever with a PB of 69:13 last year, albeit on a 4,000ft downhill course.
He may be one of the best runners to have competed in one of these championships in the younger age groups, but it’s safe to say that the opposition was underwhelming in almost every event except the 800m, where he ran a good race.
Here he ran 78:12, encouraging the British in a race going the other direction and waving to the spectators. Ukrainian W40 friend Vira Ovcharak was second across the line (1:24:11).
Showing the lack of quality in some of the younger age groups, third overall was Great Britain’s Lisa Findlay, who took W55 gold in 84:31.
That age group was much more competitive, with Ireland’s Annette Keighley, who earlier in the week won the overall European distance runner of the year, second.
Individual golds were also won by M65 Paul Mingay and M75 Ron Kettle, who both won 10km gold a few days earlier, while British marathon record holder Mingay also won the 5000m. Kettle won in 1:43:24, taking gold by two minutes from Estonia’s Lev Lubenski (1:45:39).
Steve Davies (78:34), who was only 13th at 10km, and Steve Winder (78:53) went one-two in the M50.
Great Britain also won several team gold medals. The top two M50s won by 10 minutes from Poland, with Ilya Lubenski (87:40) rounding out the scorers.
Stephens teamed up with W40 bronze medalist Kathryn Simpson (1:27:03) and W45 silver medalist Kathryn Charlton (1:34:09) to beat Ukraine by 11 minutes.
The M60s won the three-minute battle for gold between the medalists as they just edged out Finland and Portugal.
The team was led by 5,000m and 10,000m champion Chris Upson, who also won medals in the 10km and cross-country and was the individual bronze medalist in 81:49. Rounding out the team were Andrew Blair (1:24:55) and Steve Whatmow (1:27:21).
The M65, led by gold medalist Minga, took a further seven-minute lead over Ireland. Carl Hick (1:33:08) and Kevin McAleer (1:34:46) scored the other goals.
The M70 also took team gold, led by silver medalist Gavin Bain (1:30:52) and sixth-placed Paul Whelpton (1:38:30) and Brian Rogers (1:42:40).
Finlay led the W55s with Penny Pilbeam (1:44:17) and Elizabeth Robinson (1:59:03) in bronze after Ireland and Germany.
The W65 team also won bronze through W70’silber medalist Dot Kesterton (1:52:56), Fiona Bishop (2:12:32) and W75 silver medalist Carolyn Gale (2:20:39) and again followed Ireland and Germany.
Portuguese M35 Lopes Nuno won the men’s overall with 66:17.
M40 5000m and 10km silver medalist Carl Hardman was again the leading Briton, but this time he took bronze in 71:59.
He also won bronze as he went down to the M35 team and along with Daniel Bradley (73:22) and Dean Lee-Sackfield (1:23:33) they beat Italy and France.
The M55 team of Andrew Taplin (85:01), Jim Watson (1:31:22) and John MacAskill (1:32:17) finished third behind Spain and Portugal.
Other individual medalists included Geoff Newton who finished second in the M80 in 1:57:59 ahead of Belgium’s Leon Segers (1:50:05) and W35 Bobby Searle (1:33:33) who finished second to Anne Van Andel of the Netherlands (1:30:12).
Julie Wargent would win bronze in the junior W35, where she was included in the team, but had to settle for fourth in the W50 in 1:32:32.
Other notable winners were Austria’s Sabina Hofer, who won the W60 10,000m and cross-country and medaled in the 1500m, 5000m and 10km, her third gold in 1:30:36.
Ireland’s Christine Kennedy won the W70 race in 1:40:08 ahead of the W65 champion and she also won the cross country.
French world record holder Jean-Louis Esneau won the M85 race with a time of 2:11:08.
He had previously won gold in the 10,000m, 400m, 1500m, 200m hurdles, 5000m, 200m and 800m and together with silver in the 80m hurdles, his eight golds and one silver (in all individual sports) make him the most successful athlete at the championships.
The highlight of the relay was Britain’s world record in the W60 4x400m. With four of the top six fielding in the 400m individual medley, gold was a foregone conclusion.
Led by 400m silver medalist Lisa Thomas, the record was held by the legs of Christine Anthony and Ian Ellacott, and confirmed by 400m champion Virginia Mitchell after the anchor.
They clocked 4:30.03, just shy of the USA’s 4:41.63 in July, where they were anchored by world record holder Sue McDonald.
Ireland finished a distant second in 4:58.97.
There was a European record in the M65 and again Britain took four of the top six individually. World indoor 400m champion and bronze medalist Richard White led them until Tennyson James and Stuart Lynn pushed them out of Germany.
In the final, three-time sprint champion John Wright, who also won 4x100m gold, took them further and they clocked 4:03.35.
That was two seconds off the US world mark, but more than five seconds off Germany’s European mark, set 20 years earlier. Germany ran 4:20.09 here.
The M60 team set a British record of 3:52.66 and came close to Germany’s world and European mark of 3:51.19 set at the World Championships in Gothenburg.
Vincent Ely, fourth in the 400m, led them, while Roy Head, Adrian James and bronze medalist Vol Odell combined to beat France (4:00.06) by more than seven seconds.
Great Britain’s W65 team were the others to win gold. Jeanette Ashton, Louise Jeffries, Hilary West and W70 800m and 1500m champion Anna Garnier ran 5:32.91, well clear of Finland’s 5:57.98.
Great Britain’s W70 team finished second behind Germany in 6:00.42. Their team was Doreen Craig, W75 steeplechase champion Sally Hine, three-time W85 sprint champion Kathleen Stewart and multiple W75 winner Sarah Roberts and they clocked 6:22.39.
Great Britain finished third in the W50s through the team of Anita Saunders, Lourdes Bradley, double W60 fourth-place finisher Elle Hausler and 300m hurdles champion Sarah Lodes. They posted a time of 4:29.05 to winner Sweden’s 4:19.24.
The M45 took bronze by just 0.3 seconds as John Bowden, Stuart McNally, Paul Howard and steeplechase champion Mensah Elliott clocked 3:43.25. Spain won gold in 3:33.65.
Great Britain finished second in the final race of the Championships as the M35 team of Jonathan Hearns, Oliver Park, Craig Cox and 400m and 400m hurdles medalist Lewis Robson ran 3:25.07 to the Belgians’ 3:22.35.
The W45 team was fourth in 4:44.39 as Spain took the gold medal.
The M55, including M60 800m champion Rob McHarg, was fifth in 3:53.65, while the Netherlands (3:41.62), including 800m and 1500m champion Andrew Larasen, took the gold medal.
The M50s were sixth in 4:04.27 as France took gold.
At the end of a long championship, some athletes are not fit enough to compete and some go home early, but it was disappointing given their individual achievements and for the most athletes that the six age groups failed to make a team.
These included the M70s who declared but did not start and so Steve Peters failed to match Wright’s five sprint golds.
Andrew Pringle won Great Britain’s only field medal of the day when his opening run of 10.69m secured bronze as Norway’s Odvar Viulsrod won the M70 triple jump with a leap of 11.54m.
M70 long jump champion Robert Stephenson missed out on bronze in the triple jump by just four centimeters. He jumped 9.50m as the gold went to another Norwegian, Arne Tefte (10.77m).
Overall, the championships, which were a great success for Great Britain, saw quite a few organizational problems for the local organizers, who at times struggled with transport, timing, distance measurement, photo finishes, results, seeds and running on time, resulting in events ending at midnight.
Many different venues, separated by many miles, meant that many athletes never got to see their teammates, and the magnificent stadium was rarely used by throwers, jumpers and distance runners, although all the medal ceremonies and collection of numbers were there wherever you competed.
Some of Great Britain’s leading medal winners
Sarah Roberts W75 – 8 golds in 10,000m, 1500m, 5000m, 10km and 800m, 4x100m and cross country and 10km team – 4 silvers in 400m and cross country, W70 4x400x4m and medley.
Ellie Stevens W40 – 8 golds 10,000m, 1500m, 5000m, 10km, 800m and half marathon and 10km and HM team)
Evan Williams W85 – 6 golds in javelin, weight, hammer, shot, discus and weight pentathlon
Paul Mingay M65 – 5 golds 5000m, 10km and half marathon and 10km and HM team
John Wright M65 – 5 golds 400m, 100m, 200m, 4x100m, 4x400m
Anna Garnier W70 – 4 golds 1500m, 5000m, 4x100m, W65 4x400m – silver 5000m
Kathleen Stewart W85 – 4 golds 400m, 100m, 200m, W75 4x100m – silver W70 4x400m
Colin Spivey M90 – 4 golds 400m, 1500m, 5000m and 800m
Steve Peters M60 – 4 golds 400m 100m, 200m, 4 x 100m
Susan Payne W65 – 3 golds 20km walk, 10km team, W55 team 10km walk, silver 5000m walk and 10km walk and W60 team
Chris Upson M60 – golds 10,000m, 5000m, HM team, silver in cross country, bronze in HM
Clare Elms W60 – gold 5000m, 10km and W45 10km team, silver 10,000m and bronze cross-country
