EMACS Madeira October 2025 Day 3

A reminder of the European Masters Athletics Championships in Madeira 2025. Steve Smythe was present in Madeira, both as a competitor and as chronicler. Here is the second of his reports from the Championships, a chance to look back at some highlights. These words have also been published in Athletics Weekly. BMAF is grateful for the chance to repeat them here

 British masters one-lap wonders take seven golds

John Wright, Stephen Peters, Gavin Stephens, Colin Spivey, Virginia Mitchell, Tracey Ashworth and Kathleen Stewart all strike gold at 400m on day three of the European Masters on Saturday and steeplechase golds for Lisa Thomas and Kirstie Booth and throws titles for Guy Dirkin and Evaun Williams.

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Those rush of golds gave Britain 22 golds, 18 silvers and 14 bronzes as Britain strengthened their hold on second place in the medal table to Germany.

All eyes were on world masters outdoor champion John Wright in the M65 race event.

This summer he has set world age-group records at 100m (12.15) and 200m (24.47) and American Charles Allie’s 56.09 looked within reach.
He came close but his 56.36 just missed that and his own European and British record of 56.22 set in Gothenburg.

He easily won from Germany’s Gerhard Zorn (58.80) with world indoor champion Richard White third in 59.43.

With four in the top six with Stuart Lynn (60.75) and Tennyson James (62.15) also excelling there is little doubt who starts favourites in next week’s 4x400m relays!

That should also be the case in the W60 category where Britain again had four in the top six.
There, multi world champion Virginia Mitchell defended her title in 65.04 bettering her 2023 time. Chasing her in second was Lisa Thomas in 65.75 who earlier in the day had incredibly won gold in the 2000m steeplechase in 8:46.69 from the former Brit Jane Wickham (8:53.00) who was representing Spain.
In the 400m Jan Ellacott was fifth (69.09) and Christine Anthony (70.11) sixth.

Steve Peters added to his many medals as he easily won the M70 400m in a British record 61.62.
Spain’s Juan Rodriguez was second on 63.21 as David Cooke was sixth in 66.39.

Gavin Stephens went one better than in 2023 as he advanced to M45 gold at the age of 48 with a fast win in 50.89.
Sweden’s Anders Legg was second in 51.16 with Britain’s Craig Carr third in 52.36.

According to Power of Ten, M90 Colin Spivey, who has run nearly 500 Huddersfield parkruns, was making his 400m debut at the age of 91 and he won the one lap event in 1:46.77 ahead of France’s Jean Pierre Wermuth’s 1:52.22.

In her first international outdoor championships Tracey Ashworth won the W50 400m in 59.99 ahead of Belgium’s Sonia Boterdaele’s 60.65.

The W85 final wasn’t quite as competitive as world record-holder Kathleen Stewart won another British gold in 1:40.78 almost 40 seconds clear of runner-up Smaragda Mandyla of Greece.

Two days after winning W75 10,000m gold, Sarah Roberts won silver at the 400m in a UK record 80.81.
Anne Dockery was fourth in 94.17 as France’s Michelle Peroni won in 80.03.

Annette Quaid of Ireland won the W45 400m in 58.67 with Britain’s Liz Amos second in 61.60.

World Masters M60 indoor champion Roland Groger won gold for Germany in 54.61 as Florida medalist Wole Odele added another bronze in 56.94.
Using the strength that had seen him run over 400 parkruns, Odele caught team-mate Vincent Elie (57.96) on the line as the pair went equal seventh and ninth on the UK all-time lists.

Lewis Robson was third in the M35 400m in 49.03 as gold went to Israel’s Dor Kollwitz’s 48.37.
Craig Cox was fifth in 50.29.

Popsie Wootten was a close fourth in the W55 race in 66.67 as Spain’s Esther Colas was a clear winner in 62.81.

Richard Scott was fourth in the M50 400m in 54.45 as Italy’s Ivan Mancinelli won gold in 51.59.

Laura Jobsen was fifth in the W35 400m in 59.70 in a race won by the 2021 Olympic 4×400 silver medalist Ida Baumgart-Witan’s 53.54. The latter’s PB is 51.02.

Ireland’s Edel Maguire won the W65 gold in 68.44 with Louise Jeffries (fifth in 81.45) and Hilary West (sixth in 83.54 leading the UK challenge.

Doreen Craig was sixth in the W70 400m with 87.33.

Britain’s other steeplechase gold came in the W45 event as Kirstie Booth had a runaway win in 6:54.31 as she made a brave solo attempt on her own world record as she won by over a minute.
The time was much quicker than the younger W35 and W40 athletes achieved in the next final.
Jaqueline Etherington was second in 7:55.03.

In the same race, Ana Ramos-Villaverde won W50 bronze in 9:02.23.

Steven Gardner was second in the M60 steeplechase with 7:17.09 close behind Netherlands’ Peter Musberg (7:15.01).
Simon Allen set a PB in sixth in 7:58.14.

Damian Nevins was a close fourth in the M45 3000m steeplechase in 10:02.64 with Gurmit Singh sixth in 10:25.05.

The throwers also had a great day despite very late finishes and some slack measuring by the officials robbing some throwers of many metres.

W85 Evaun Williams won her third gold of the championships as her 28.87m hammer throw gave her a near nine metre victory and she also easily beat the W80 champion too as she finished a remarkable second out of 18 W75 plus throwers.

Former AAA discus finalist Guy Dirkin also struck gold as his 18.89m throw gave him the M70 weight title from Greece’s Vasileios Manganas’ 18.09m.

Colin Spivey was not the only UK M90 medalist of the day as Warwick Dixon added to his hammer haul with a weight silver with another British record 10.65m.

Sweden’s Oster Edlund took gold with a 11.70m throw.

Janet Smith (38.36m) and Ruth Bird (34.82m) were fourth and sixth in the W60 hammer.

Bob Broadbridge was fourth in the M65 weight with a 15.01m throw.

More medals were expected but a number of throws taking place on Saturday weren’t expected to finish before Sunday morning and will be included in Sunday’s report!

There were also British medals in the walks as Melanie Peddle won W55 bronze in the 5000m event with 28:05.16 as gold went to Katalin Bodorkos-Horvath who achieved 27:17.20.

Aleksandra Majewska-Ani picked up W35 bronze in 29:38.82 as Netherlands’ Anne Van Andel recorded 25:06.82.

Wilford Floyd Wilks was fifth in the M55 decathlon with 6465 points as Swede Mattias Sunneborn scored 7576 to win gold.

Alistair Hill leads the M75 decathlon overnight on 3491 points and Jo Rowland heads the W35 heptathlon with 3036 points.

Jodie Albrow is third in the W40 event halfway.

Sunday sees all the 1500m finals and while most events will be straight finals many Brits impressed in qualifying on Saturday including M60 Rob McHarg (4:52.53) and M60 Dave Clarke (5:20.70) who were fastest.

M45 Paul Grange (4:15.32) and M50 Dean Richardson (4:21.44) and M55 Mark Symes (4:31.70) were second fastest.