Britain’s 800m runners continued Britain’s dominance of European running as they won eight golds at the European Masters in Madeira on Saturday (October 18) in a record morning that saw four British records and two world records.
Great Britain also dominated the relay and won further gold medals in the pole vault, discus and 20km walk.
Having won 23 golds on Saturday, Britain will surely top the medal table with the 4x400m relay and half marathon and the final few field events coming up on the final day, Sunday (October 19).
Great Britain has 114 golds, 91 silvers and 65 bronzes, while Germany has 98, 88 and 74, and France is third with 61, 52 and 59.
The British highlight in the 800m was Rob McHarg, who broke the M60 world record in 2:07.65, following his world records in the 800m and 1500m over the winter.
Second in the 1500m at Madeira to Andrew Ridley, who also beat him in both the 800m and 1500m at last year’s World Championships, he set a blistering pace here.
At 63 seconds through the bell he kept pushing and only Ridley could keep up and it was still in the balance as they turned into the straight. But his rival couldn’t keep up and he crossed the line in 2:07.65, against American Nolan Shahid’s official record of 2:08.56.
To confuse matters, although Ridley is listed as the European record holder with a manual 2:08.1 from 2024 and was 2:07.45 a few weeks ago (ahead of McHarg’s 2:08.01), the photo finish failed and it was never validated. Spain’s Jose Llorente was a distant third (2:13.30).
Starting at an unusual time for an 800m race, well before the scheduled 9am, Sarah Roberts was the first Briton to win over two rounds as she claimed victory by almost 30 seconds in the W75 plus 800m in 3:05.12.
He had already won W75 golds in the 1500m, 5000m, 10,000m and 10km and finished second in the steeplechase and 400m, with two team golds and more medals to follow in the relay.
It came down to a close second with Spain’s Pepa Quintana second in 3:34.54 ahead of Great Britain’s Caroline Gale in 3:35.52.
Two minutes after Roberts crossed the line, Britain claimed a second gold of the race as cross-country champion Betty Stracey (5:23.18) beat Greece’s Smaragda Mandila (5:39.36) in the event’s W85 race.
A few more minutes later, 1500m champion Anna Garnier, who narrowly lost the 5000m to former Great Britain Alison Bourgeois, raced to W70 gold in 3:01.38. Sweden’s Lily Wiesen was second in 3:02.60 and Switzerland’s Bourgeois was third after early leads.
The last gold for the British women came in the W40 race as Ellie Stephens had to fight hard for her fifth individual gold, having already won the 1500m, 5000m, 10,000m and 10km.
After Stephens went into the final straight, Ireland’s Bronwen Macdonald took the lead with 30 meters to go, but Stephens pulled away to win in 2:14.79 to her rival’s 2:14.98. Stevens runs the half marathon on the final day. Faye Sharpley set a PB in fourth in 2:19.73.
Shortly after, when the action extended to the older men’s athletes, gold was claimed in the men’s M85 plus race. France’s Jean-Louis Esneau came close to matching his M85 world record with a clocking of 3:01.44 to take the gold medal, but third was M90 champion Colin Spivey.
Already a British record winner in the 400m and 1500m (plus a fast 5000m in the extreme heat), he ran a British M90 record of 4:17.60, 16 seconds off the previous best in his first ever 800m, and won gold by 20 seconds from Jean-Pierre Vermoux of France.
Charlie Thurstan, who became only the second British M50 this year to break two minutes outdoors in a near UK record of 1:58.96, was an impressive M50 winner.
He ran 2:00.93 here to chase home 1500m champion Dean Richardson (2:02.20), who ran his fastest outdoor 800m for more than a decade.
Great Britain also won gold in the next race. 1500m champion Paul Grange, who has become a clear second all-time in the M45 age group this year, clocking 1:54.24 last month, destroyed the field by three seconds in 1:56.67. Poland’s Karol Gorny was a distant second in 1:59.84.
Jill Harrison, who was second in the 1500m and 5000m, showed good speed for the former British 10,000m champion who was third in the W65s. She clocked 2:59.38 to Swedish winner Karin Walstedt’s time of 2:40.87, just over the world record and very close to Karen Brooks’ European record of 2:40.65.
W60 800m European record for 1500m champion Anne Gilshinan of Ireland. She clocked 2:26.02 and was chased by 400m champion Virginia Mitchell (2:27.21), who set a British record. Reigning champion and former European record holder Luisa de Coelho took third (2:29.95).
Britain’s Elke Hausler (PB 2:43.18) and Christine Anthony (2:44.22) rounded out the top five.
Ireland also won W35 gold through Mary Horgan (2:13.40) and again the Briton followed her home. Kat Sutton, who shared the bronze in the 1500m with the same time to one thousandth, took silver this time in 2:16.62, just two thousandths of a second behind France’s Mathilde Bourget.
Surprise M65 1500m champion Jed Turner came close to winning another gold. He ran a fast 200m but just eased up in the last 30m and was caught at the line in 2:22.56 by Iceland’s Hafstein Oskarsson (2:22.50). John Thomson finished third in 2:24.20.
There were plenty of records in the M55 race as Mark Symes set his usual blistering pace before 1500m champion Andrew Larasen, who had previously inquired about competing for the British Masters while living in the South of England, ran clear. His time of 2:02.53 beat Peter Oberliessen’s world record of 2:02.92 of Germany.
Second back Symes ran superbly and his 2:03.56 broke the British record of 2:04.9 set back in 1999 by Reg Phipps. Stephen Baldock was fourth in 2:07.89 and Andrew Taplin sixth in 2:08.48.
There was also British silver in the M40 race. Paul Wright (1:54.57) battled all the way but just couldn’t get past Germany’s Sebastian Schiffer (1:54.23). Wright’s time was a PB and meant he matched last year’s Euro Masters Indoor silver.
Hazel Bowe was 6th in the W45 800m in 2:29.32 in a race won by Ireland’s Denise Toner in 2:17.95.
Ireland also won the M70 race through Joe Gough who closed the gap in the final meters to run 2:29.39 to beat fellow 1500m winner Pieteris Arents of Latvia (2:29.57).
Ireland also took M80 gold through John McDermott in 3:04.80.
There were also Great Britain golds in the field. Dash Newington, who was second in the high jump, went one better in the W40 pole vault. A failure in the first attempt at 3.20m pushed her back to Italy’s Giorgia Vian, who cleared that and the first attempts at 3.35m and 3.50m. The turn came at 3.65m as the Brit first cleared it and the Italian as she failed to match and failed her last two attempts at 3.80m.
World Masters silver medalist Sue Yeomans won W70 pole vault gold for the third time at 2.30m, beating Germany’s Ute Riete, who was climbing that height. In the same competition, Sue Petley won W60 gold at 2.20m, beating Clotilde Lesenechal of France at 2.00m.
Multiple world and European champion Airi Hill was not in the best shape, but her only successful jump. for the second time, 2.80m was enough for W55 gold, with Finland’s Maria Eskelinen clearing 2.70m and another Briton, Stephanie Dornbusch, clearing 2.50m in her latest attempt to snatch bronze.
Guy Dirkin, who had a PB of 56.40m at the AAA championships more than 50 years ago, won the M70 discus with a throw of 43.40m, but was pushed hard by Italy’s Hugo Cope (42.97m). The athlete living in the USA had already won the weight here.
M65 shot champion Alan Leiper was a close second in the M65 pentathlon with 3801 and only Poland’s Eduard Zwolski’s 3855. 13.94 m in weight.
Bob Broadbridge was fourth with 3,358, moving up from 14th in the final event.
Multi-medalist Warwick Dixon finished third in the M90 ​​event with 2,870 points as 1960 Olympian Osten Edlund of Sweden won again with 4,135 points. In five events, Dixon threw 21.75m, 6.97m, 17.68m, 13.96m and 8.84m.
Neil Burton in the long jump with his gold medal in the M45 bronze in the triple jump. He jumped 12.98m as the gold went to France’s Najib Bannour (13.44m).
Grant Stirling also took bronze in the M50 category to match his result from the previous day. He jumped 12.24m as the title went to Marek Wolff of the Czech Republic, who had the best six jumps of the day.
Onyebuchi Egemonye opened the M35 triple jump with a PB of 13.49m to take the lead but could not improve further to finish fourth. Spain’s Jose Martinez (14.35m) won the gold medal.
Jack Poxon was sixth in the M40 triple jump (11.64m).
In the W35 pole vault, Athena Chaun finished sixth with a jump of 2.10m.
Darren Kerr (3344) was sixth in the M55 pentathlon.
Portugal’s M45 João Vieira won the overall 20km walk in 1:38:10.
Piotr Boszko won his second M75 gold in 2:11:53, although M75 10km champion and Olympian Ian Richards was disqualified. Steve Allen was fifth in the M45 in 2:10:17.
French Vanessa Denisel won the women’s competition (1:44:58).
Susan Payne took gold in 2:16:25, W35 silver to Aleksandra Majewska-Ani (2:16:13), W60 bronze to Maureen Noel (2:17:18) and W45 silver to Carolyn Derbyshire (2:18:15).
There was W35 team gold led by team manager and W55 fifth-place finisher Wendy Kane (2:10:33), who teamed up with Majewska-Ani and Derbyshire to take the title within 20 minutes of Austria.
Payne and Noel combined with sixth W65 Fiona Bishop (2:49:05) to finish second behind Germany in the W60 team.
Norway’s Arild Basterud won his sixth gold in Madeira as he won the M75 discus with a throw of 39.47m.
