Great Britain's 10km and 200m runners enjoyed a highly successful Thursday as the action resumed in Madeira after a rest day.

Together with successes in the long jump, weight pentathlon, shot put and javelin throw, Great Britain won what is believed to be an unprecedented 23 golds on a single day as well as many silvers and bronzes.

Britain now have 89 golds (and 65 silvers and 51 bronzes) and are well ahead of Germany (78, 68, 61) and France (50, 42, 45) in the medal table. Only the 800m and relays remain on the last three days of track competition.

The 10km runners gained 11 golds through W40 Ellie Stevens, W60 Clare Elms, W75 Sarah Roberts, M65 Paul Mingay and M75 Ron Cattle, with victories for 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 pick of the 10km runners as the W40 won the overall women's race by 98 seconds on a testing Funchal city centre course, with high humidity in a race that started at 8pm.

Already the winner of the 1500m, 5000m and 10,000m – the 800m and half-marathon are still to come – she finished over 400 metres clear of Poland's Ewa 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 team gold over both Ireland and Ukraine.

Another dominating, Roberts won her fifth and sixth W75 gold of the championships. Already the winner of the 1500m, 5000m and 10,000m and cross-country team, as well as silver medals at 400m and cross-country, she was an easy winner in 46:11. Carolyn Gale (fifth in 57:15) and Anne Dockery (sixth in 57:57) also won team golds on the country, Britain won the W75 team title by 24 minutes from Germany. Cross-country champion Eileen Kenny of Ireland (49:09) was second.

Elms, who received an award from the European Masters Association as the top middle distance runner of 2024 the day before, won her third and fourth golds and fifth and six medals of the week, after winning six golds in the World Masters in Florida in March.

A virus plus adaptation to the hot weather had caused a relatively disappointing start to the championships when she lost big leads in her first two events and had to settle for minor medals. However, here she followed up a win in the 5000m with a clear victory on the road and her 40:25 gave her an easy W60 gold over her 10,000m and cross-country conqueror Sabine Hofer of Austria (41:06).

Elms was moved down to the W45 age group for team purposes and together with W45 runner-up Zoe Oldfield (38:21) and W50 Valerie Woodland (44:05), Britain won the team gold by 14 minutes from Germany and Sweden.

Britain's W65 team of fourth-placer Sian Davies (48:05), sixth-placer and multi walks medalist Susan Payne (50:42) and Fiona Bishop (52:04) narrowly won gold from Ireland and Germany.

Britain's W70 team of Dot Kesterton (50:24), Louise Rowley (51:15) and Sara Ellen (53:05) also won gold. Kesterton and Rowley won individual silver and bronzes behind Margret Goettnauer of Austria (49:40), who secured gold three minutes behind older category winner Roberts.

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 M35 Pole Andrzej Starzynski, who dominated the cross-country and he won the race by 16 seconds in 31:15.

Mingay followed his M65 5000m win with another wells-paced effort. He timed 38:05 and finished almost half a minute clear of France's Dominique Delbe (38:33) and Malcolm Eustace (39:43). Thanks to Mingay, Eustace and Karl Hick (43:14), Britain won the M65 team gold by just 27 seconds from France with Italy third.

World champion Ron Cattle, who missed the earlier events having won the Berlin Marathon in his category won M75 gold with a time of 45:25. France's Jean Thomas, the 10,000m track champion, was second in 45:58. Carl Hardman (32:29), a 5000m medallist, was the second M40 behind Italian Umberto Persi (32:29) and led Britain to third in the M35 category.

Brian Wilder was the third M50 in 33:54 by less than a second but together with 5000m medalist Anthony O'Brien (34:20) and Gareth Raven (34:22), they finished second 90 seconds behind winners Spain.

M60 5000m and 10,000m champion Chris Upson had to settle for third here in 37:05 as gold went to cross-country champion Pauric McKinney of Ireland (35:54). The team placed fourth in the most competitive age group of the championships. Spain again won gold.

Britain's M55 team finished third, their M70 team (led by fourth-placer Gavin Bayne (42:17) were second by just 17 seconds and the M80 team placed second led by fourth-placer Geoff Newton (54:30).

Britain's 200m runners also dominated Europe. Lisa Boland completed the W40 sprint double with a 25.27/-1.3 victory well clear of Germany's Sinah Glorence Hanssler-Hug's 25.86. That time is a UK record improving her 25.34 from last year's world championships.

Another to do the 100m and 200m double was 22.85 performer in 1999, Christine Harrison-Bloomfield. Here she won the W55 gold by well over a second in 26.65/0.2. The senior world indoor and outdoor championship representative left Germany's Iris Opitz (27.76) almost ten metres back while the 2024 European Masters sprint athlete of the year Esther Colas was third in 27.80 having won the 400m here. Popsie Wootten finished sixth in 28.81.

The third British woman to achieve the sprint double was W70 Helen Godsell. The day after receiving an award as part of a British  team for the top European relay performance, she won the 200m in 32.29/-1.3 well clear of Sweden's Lilly Wizen's 33.00.

Kathleen Stewart became the first Brit to win the sprint triple here as she easily won the W85 race in 42.30/-1.6 15 seconds clear of Greek Smaragda Mandyla's 57.37.

The first British winner at the distance was Gavin Stephens completed the 400m/200m double on the M45 category with a clear win in 23.06/-1.7 which left him three metres clear of Israel's Asaf Malta (23.36). Sweden's Lion Martinez, the 100m champion, ran 22.75 in his semi did not start the final.

The next British champion came in the M55 category as Darren Scott was another to complete the sprint double as his 23.88/-1.6 gave him two metres on Italy's Claudio Fausti's 24.12. Russell Whiting finished fifth in 24.92.

Britain's most dominant age group though were the M65s who had five of the top six athletes (and another Brit missed the final by just a hundredth of a second).

Predictably world record-holder and 100m/400m champion John Wright completed his sprint triple with an easy win in 24.68/-1.4 from Pat Logan's 25.99.

Ricardo Huskisdon (27.10), Tennyson Janes (27.25) and Stuart Lynn (27.39) packed from fourth to sixth. Steve Peters matched Wright's triple with a brilliant win in 25.97/-1.8 for a British and European record. Juan Rodriguez was a distant second in 26.86 as John Browne finished sixth in 28.24.

Stacey Downie (25.18) was a clear second in the W35 race to Olympic 4x400m relay silver medalist Iga Baumgart-Witan's 24.75/-1.1. The Pole had previously won the 400m. Katy Lord finished fifth in 25.91.

W50 400m champion Tracey Ashworth finished second in 26.41 as Sweden's Helen Hermundstad (25.79/0.3) completed the sprint double.  The 300m hurdles champion Sarah Loades finished sixth in 27.41. The W60 race was won by Italy's Monica Dessi in 29.33/-0.1 with Julie Hicken gaining the bronze medal in 29.98. France's Michelle Peroni took gold in the W75 race in 35.18/-1.0.

The 80m hurdles champion Sally Hine who was second at 100m completed her medal set with a bronze in 36.43. The 1500m, 5000m and 10,000m champion Sarah Roberts was remarkably fourth in 36.99 and not quite able to match her heat tone.   200m hurdles champion Emily McMahon (37.05) made it three Brits in the top five.

Britain won two medals in the M50 category as Kose Albert of Spain (23.33/-2.0) narrowly got the better of 100m champion TJ Ossai (23.35) with Mike Coogan edged third in 23.59.

Friedholm Adorf easily won the M80 gold in 30.15/-0.4 but Britain still won two medals through Viktor Novell (33.67) and James Smirh (34.05). Additionally Alan Forse (36.36) finished sixth.

Germany's Roland Groger dominated the M60 race in 24.88/-1.4 but Vincent Elie was third in 25.68. Daniel Hill was fourth in the M40 200m in 23.29 in a race won by Greek Alexsandros Kokkinis 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 golds at 400m and high jump and was second at 100m. The M35 race was won by Italy's Bokar Badji in 22.23/-2.1 with Byron Robinson sixth in 22.83.

There was a British one-two in the shot in a great battle between former European indoor champion Allan Leiper and world indoor champion this year Michael Hausler who also beat Leiper in the British Championships. Hausler led the first round as a 13.06m gave him advantage to his rival's 12.51m but Leiper responded with a second round 13.09m.

That held the advantage until Hausler regained the lead with a fifth round 13.20m where Leiper achieved 13.05m. It was all down to the final throw and Leiper's 13.44m gave him the gold.

Robert Stevenson opened the M70 long jump contest with a 4.56m leap to take the lead before a second round  4.87/0.6 jump sealed gold and also gave him a British record. It was the first international event he has attended since the 2013 World Championships in Brazil when he won a silver medal in the M60 300m hurdles.

Second went to Romania's Adrian Beau (4.69m). Alistair Hill, who was 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 contest here he threw 33.48m in the second round and that narrowly held off Pole Jerry Krawczyk's 33.00m effort as less than 76 centimetres covered the three medallists.

Dash Newington finished second in the W40 high jump with a 1.50m leap as gold went to France's Marie Plasse (1.55m). Dougie Graham finished second in the M45 pole vault with a 4.10m leap as gold went to Thomas Ritte of Germany with 4.25m.

Morris Fox finished third in the M60 shot with a 13.91m throw and was just short of second but Germany's Norbert Demmel (14.98m) won easily. Gaye Clarke was sixth in the W65 high jump with a 1.16m leap.

Catherine Holdsworth achieved gold in the W40 Weight Pentathlon with a score of 2758 points which gave her a 84 point winning margin. Her throws were 37.64m in the hammer, 11.84m in the shot, 32.99m in the discus, 27.05m in the javelin and 12.55m in the weight. Second was Germany's Anna Schupel (2674). Suzanna Wise finished fourth (2598) with the latter's 14.71m easily being the best weight throw.

Shot champion Paula Williams was sixth in the W50 throws with 3048 points with 13.24m achieved in her speciality. Ruth Bird was sixth W60 with a score of 2869 points.