Britain's final day at the European Masters Championships in Madeira consolidated their position at the head of the medal table.

Britain won golds in age groups ranging from the over 35s to the over 90s. It was almost certainly the biggest medal haul by any British team that had ever participated in a World or European Championships.

While there are seemingly an ever growing number of events and age groups as athletes seem to get ever older, Britain's 20 gold advantage over the rest of Europe is unprecedented.

Britain won 129 golds, 101 silvers and 76 bronze, easily heading Europe's other big hitters Germany (109, 98, 81).

France (65, 59, 61), Spain (58, 63, 65) and Italy (51, 45, 36). Sweden, Poland and Ireland complete the top eight.

The final day was built around the half-marathon and the 4x400m relays and a few remaining field events.

Britain won 23 medals in the half-marathon but a slightly below-par eight in the relays.

Britain's individual star performer of the championships and the day was Ellie Stevens. The US-based Birchfield Harrier won her sixth individual gold and together with a team gold here and in the 10km means her eight golds makes her the most successful woman of the championships.

Already the winner of the W40 10,000m, 1500m, 5000m, 10km and 800m, she added the half-marathon winning the overall women's race by almost Mile and six minutes. The race started at 8am in the dark with 95 per-cent humidity but soon a blazing sun was out making conditions tough.

Stevens who can lay claim to be Britain's fastest over-40 half-marathoner ever with a 69:13 PB last year - albeit on a course with 4000 feet of descent.

She might well be one of the best all-round distance runners to attend one of these championships in the younger age-groups but it is safe to say the opposition was modest in almost every event other than 800m where she got a good race.

Here she ran 78:12 encouraging fellow Brits in the race going in the other direction and waving to spectators. Second across the line was fellow W40 Vira Ovcharak of Ukraine (1:24:11)

Showing the lack of quality in some of the younger age groups third overall was Brit Lisa Findlay who won W55 gold in a fine 84:31.

That age group was far more competitive as second was Ireland's Annette Keily who earlier in week was presented with the overall European long distance runner of the year.

Also winning individual gold was M65 Paul Mingay and M75 Ron Cattle who had both won 10km gold a few days earlier with UK marathon record-holder Mingay also winning the 5000m. Cattle won in 1:43:24 and won gold by two minutes from Estonian Lev Lubenskiy (1:45:39).

Steve Davies (78:34) who was only 13th in the 10km and Steve Winder (78:53) went one-two in the M50s.

Britain also picked up some team golds. The M50s with the top two won by 10 minutes from Poland with Ilia Loubenski (87:40) completing the scorers.

Stevens combined with W40 bronze medalist Catherine Simpson (1:27:03) and W45 silver medallist Catherine Charlton (1:34:09) and they won by 11 minutes from Ukraine.

The M60s won a competitive fight for gold which saw three minutes between the medallists as they just got the better of Finland and Portugal

The team were led by 5000m and 10,000m champion Chris Upson who also medalled in the 10km and cross-country and he was a close individual bronze medallist in 81:49. Andrew Blair (1:24:55) and Steve Watmough (1:27:21) completed the team.

The M65 led by gold medalist Mingay won more by a bigger margin of seven minutes from Ireland. The other scorers were Karl Hick (1:33:08) and Kevin McAleer (1:34:46).

The M70 also struck team gold led by silver medallist Gavin Bayne (1:30:52) and backed up by Sixth-placer 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) to bronzes behind Ireland and Germany.

The W65 team also won bronzes 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.

The overall men's winner was Portuguese M35 Lopes Nuno in 66:17.

The M40 5000m and 10km silver medalist Carl Hardman was again the leading Brit but this time got bronze in 71:59.

He also won bronze as he dropped down to the M35 team and together with Daniel Bradley (73:22) and Dean Lee-Sackfield (1:23:33) they finished behind 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 M80 in 1:57:59 behind Belgian Leon Segers (1:50:05) and W35 Bobby Searle (1:33:33) who finished second to Netherlands' Anne Van Andel (1:30:12).

Julie Wargent would have won bronze in the younger W35s where she was included in the team but had to settle for fourth in the W50s in 1:32:32.

Other notable winners were Austrian Sabine Hofer who had won the W60 10,000m and cross-country and medalled in the 1500m, 5000m and 10km and she gained 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.

France's multi world record-breaking Jean-Louis Esnault won the M85 race in 2:11:08.

He had previously won gold at 10,000m, 400m, 1500m, 200m hurdles, 5000m, 200m and 800m and together with a silver in the 80m hurdles, his eight golds and one silver (all individual events) make him the most successful athlete of the Championships.

The relay highlight was Britain's world record in the W60 4x400m. Fielding four of the top six from the individual 400m, gold appeared a formality.

Led off by steeplechase champion and 400m silver medallist Lisa Thomas the record was on after legs by Christine Anthony and Jan Ellacott and confirmed after an anchor by 400m champion here Virginia Mitchell.

They toned 4:30.03 taking a huge margin off of USA's 4:41.63 set in July where they were anchored by world record-holder Sue McDonald.
Ireland were a distant second in 4:58.97.

There was an European record in the M65 and again Britain fielded four of the top six individually. 400m world indoor champion and bronze medallist Richard White led them off before Tennyson James and Stuart Lynn pulled them well clear of Germany.

On the final leg, triple sprint champion John Wright, who also won 4x100m gold , pulled them further away and they timed 4:03.35.

That was two seconds shy of USA's world mark but took over five seconds off Germany 's European mark set 20 years ago.
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 set in Gothenburg in the World Championships of 3:51.19.

400m fourth-placer Vincent Elie, led them off and Roy Head, Adrian James and bronze medalist Wole Odele combined to beat France (4:00.06) by over seven seconds.

Britain's W65 team were the others to strike 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.

Britain's W70 team finished second to Germany's 6:00.42. Their team was Doreen Craig, W75 hurdles champion Sally Hine, triple W85 sprint champion Kathleen Stewart and multi W75 winner Sarah Roberts and they timed 6:22.39.

Britain finished third in the W50s through a team of Anita Saunders, Lourdes Bradley, W60 double fourth-placer Elle Hausler and 300 m hurdles champion Sarah Loades. They timed 4:29.05 to winner Sweden's 4:19.24.

The M45s got bronze by just 0.3 of a second as John Bowden, Stuart McNally, Paul Howard and hurdles champion Mensah Elliott ran 3:43.25. Spain won gold in 3:33.65.

Britain finished second in the final track race of the Championships as the M35 squad of Jonathan Hiorns, Oliver Park, Craig Cox and 400m and 400m hurdles medallist Lewis Robson ran 3:25.07 to Belgium's 3:22.35.

The W45 team were fourth in 4:44.39 as Spain took gold.

The M55s including M60 800m champion Rob McHarg were fifth in 3:53.65 as the Netherlands (3:41.62) including 800m and 1500m champion Andrew Larasen took gold.

The M50s were sixth in 4:04.27 as France took gold.

By the end of a long championships some athletes are not fit enough to compete and some go home early but it was disappointing given their individual success and with the most athletes that six age groups failed to field a team.

These included the M70s who declared but did not start and thus Steve Peters failed to match Wright's five sprint golds.

Andrew Pringle gained Britain's only field medal of the day as his opening 10.69m held on for bronze as Norwegian Oddvar Viulsrod won the M70 triple jump with a 11.54m leap.

M70 long jump champion Robert Stevenson missed out on bronze by just four centimetres in the triple jump. He jumped 9.50m as the gold went to another Norwegian Arne Tefte (10.77m).

Overall the championships while a great success for Britain did see quite a few organisational problems for the local organisers who occasionally struggled with transport, scheduling, measuring distances, photo finish, results, seeding and running on time which saw events finishing in the middle of the night.

The many different venues separated by many miles meant that many athletes never got to see their team-mates and the magnificent stadium was rarely used by throwers and jumpers and distance runners though all the medal ceremonies and number collection was there wherever you competed.

Britain's leading multi medalists

Ellie Stevens W40 - 8 golds in 10,000m, 1500m, 5000m, 10km, 800m and half-marathon and 10km and HM team)

Sarah Roberts W75 - 7 golds in 10,000m, 1500m, 5000m, 10km and 800m and XC and 10km team - 2 silvers in 400m and cross-country )

Evaun Williams W85 - 6 golds in Javelin, Weight, hammer, shot, discus and weight pentathlon

Paul Mingay M65 - 5 golds in 5000m, 10km and half-marathon & 10km and HM team

John Wright M65 - 5 golds in 400m, 100m, 200m, 4x100m, 4x400m

Anna Garnier W70 - 4 golds in 1500m, 5000m, 4x100m, W65 4x400m - silver in 5000m

Kathleen Stewart W85 - 4 golds in 400m, 100m, 200m , W75 4x100 m - silver in W70 4x400m

Colin Spivey M90 - 4 golds in 400m, 1500m, 5000m, and 800 m

Steve Peters M60 - 4 golds in 400m 100m, 200m, 4x100m

Susan Payne W65 - 3 golds in 20km walk, 10km team, W55 team 10km walk, silver in 5000m walk and 10km walk and W60 team

Chris Upson M60 - golds in 10,000m, 5000m, HM team, silver in cross-country, bronze in HM

Clare Elms W60 - golds in 5000m, 10km and W45 10km team, silver in 10,000m and bronze in Cross-country