W55 Clare Elms leads GB challenge in an event dominated by home nation who won a staggering 105 gold medals

Clare Elms became the first athlete to win three individual gold medals at the same European Masters Non-Stadia Championship when in the space of 40 hours she won W55 titles on consecutive days at 10km, 5km and half-marathon.

Elms also won a team gold and two team silver medals.

Britain’s only other individual gold medals were won in the M70 category from runners who focused on just a single event.

In the 5km, John Skelton won easily in 19:37 well clear of Italian Bruno Sarale (20:25). Skelton had previously won the European Masters 5000m M65 title in 2018 and indoor 3000m title in 2019.

The course was over a flat two and a half-lap circuit which was ideal for spectating with nearly the whole route visible from the finish area.

Scottish cross-country champion Anthony Martin was even more dominant in the half-marathon as his 1:29:50 gave him victory by five minutes over Italy’s Enzo Tozelli.

Martin’s best previous international result was probably a second in the Masters Cross-Country International in 2017 to distance legend Nick Rose and interestingly Skelton had been third.

The race was run over a one-lap course which took in a rural route around the Airport but then went around the scenic old town.

The course was well policed at road junctions but there was an absence of marshalls and signage and many runners who could not see those in front strayed off course.

Unusually Martin also won a team medal but moving all the way down to the M35 team given the short number of British men doing the half-marathon and there he picked up a silver medal.

Elms’ also won W55 team gold in the 10km to go with her individual title which was the hardest of her triple.

A chaotic very narrow start left her well back and then panicking there were fellow W55s ahead, she blasted the opening kilo well inside age-group world record pace.

With temperatures in the Friday afternoon race high in the 20s, she overheated after the fast start and had to slow significantly and staggered across the line in 41:09 with Swiss Doris Koller second in 41:51 and fellow Brit Susan Ridley third (44:58) and with a third Brit Cathy Flitcroft fourth, Britain easily defeated home nation Italy.

There was no such identification problem in the 5km as that was early Saturday morning and there was a separate W55 plus race which despite being up against fresh athletes, she won comfortably in 18:41 and, just as in the 10km, she was quicker than the W50 winners as Italians Manuela Massa (19:14) and Enrica Carrara (19:36) challenged her up to halfway and meant Italy won from Britain in the team event.

Wary after her heat problems on day one, Elms ran a more conservative race in the half-marathon though the earlier start meant it only got really hot later in the race.

After trailing early on, she won reasonably comfortably in 87:48 with Ireland’s Cathryn Brady (1:30:41) second and Koller third (91:49) with Spain’s Maria Castro Solina who had beaten Elms into second in the W50 race in 2016 in Portugal having to settle for fourth. Both Brady and Castro Solina ran just the half-marathon which over all the age groups had the largest fields.

With only three British women running in the longest race, Britain were forced to move runners down to make a team and both Elms and W65 bronze medalist Margaret Martin (1:48:58), the wife of M70 winner Anthony moved down to the W40 age group to join W40 fourth-placer Bethany Thompson (PB 1:24:39) and win silver medals behind Italy and join popular bronze medallists Ukraine on the podium.

The latter had also earlier won team gold surprising Italy in the M65 10km event.

Just under a hour after Elms finished the half-marathon, W75 German Maria Nittel also won her third gold medal though she was the only runner in her age group in that race after facing more opposition in the shorter races. Her respective wins were 60:03, 27:12 and 2:12:10.

The triple was attempted by more male athletes than women and there was success for Portuguese M50 Davide Figuiredo (32:50, 16:05 and 71:54), Swedish M80 Ake Jonson (52:04, 25:37 and 2:08:40) and Swiss M80 Gregorio Sablone (59:39, 27:11 and 2:04:10) though the latter two also won their half-marathons uncontested.

Other athletes who made an impression with double wins included Irish W70 Eileen Kenny who did not contest the half-marathon while her daughter Michelle won W40 5km bronze.

Spain’s Javier Diaz Catterero won the M45 5km and 10km but was well beaten in the half-marathon by a  fresh Joachim Nshirimana while Spain’s Miguel Muro Ferrer won M40 gold at 10km and half-marathon but missed the 5km.

Spain’s Francisco Garcia Lopes took double gold in the M60 10km and 5km but was only fifth in the longer event.

Italian Virginio Trentin took golds at the 10km and half-marathon but was only third in an exciting 5km while Italian Hodan Mohamed Mohamud won the 10km and 5km but missed the half-marathon.

One Italian athlete with a well known British name – Alessandro Gratton – won the W60 5km and half-marathon but missed the 10km.

The most popular winner of the weekend was 92-year-old home athlete Angelo Squadrone who won the M90 10km in 89:38 and 5km in 42:48.

Other individual UK medallists were M70 Ron Cattle (10km: 43:39), W50 Val Woodland (10km: 44:52) and W65 Mary Mackin (10km: 47:46) who all won bronze medals, giving Britain an overall individual run total of 10 medals.

Britain’s team medals other than the aforementioned W55 10km gold, W55 5km silver, W40 silver and M35 half-marathon bronze came with the M55 half-marathon silver, W35 5km silver, M35 5km bronze and M65 5km bronze.

The best 10km times were from Italian M35 Nicolas De Nicolo (31:02) and W35 Martina Facciani (34:44).

The fastest times in the 5km were set by Italian M40 Antonio Liuzzo (14:50) and W35 Portugal’s Andreia Santos (17:00).

The quickest half-marathon times belonged to Italian M35 Alessandro Marangi (68:55) and German Bettina Englisch (78:30).

10km

M35: 1 N De Nicolo (ITA) 31:02; 2 R Pinto (POR) 33:35; 3 I Parju (ROM) 34:14

TEAM: 1 ITA 99:49

M40: 1 M Muro Ferrer (ESP) 31:36; 2 R Diz Diaz (ESP) 32:21; 3 A Doherty (IRL) 32:54; 30 Lee Llewellyn (GBR) 55:06

TEAM: 1 ESP 1:37:10

M45: 1 J Diaz Carretero (ESP) 32:52; 2 K Nedregard (NOR) 33:37; 3 V Puccio (ITA) 33:41

TEAM: 1 ESP 1:42:58

M50: 1 D Figueiredo (POR) 32:50; 2 F Lupinetti (ITA) 33:21; 3 D Toal (IRL) 33:34; 8 Richard Jones (GBR) 35:37

TEAM: 1 ITA 1:41:32

M55: 1 J Figueiredo (POR) 33:30; 2 A Quaglia (AUT) 36:15; 3 M Silva (POR) 36:20; 12 Steven  Worsley (GBR) 39:55; 17 Paul Smith (GBR) 42:50; 27 Alan Roberts (GBR) 49:39

TEAM: 1 POR 1:52:40; 6 GBR 2:12:24

M60: 1 F Garcia Lopez (ESP) 35:44; 2 F Torresani (ITA) 35:47; 3 C Werion (BEL) 39:36; 16 Steven Doxey (GBR) 46:04

TEAM: 1 ITA 1:55:56; 5 GBR 2:34:44

M65: 1 V Trentin (ITA) 38:11; 2 S Dunlop (SUI) 39:26; 3 W de Weerdt (NED) 39:54; 14 Brian Martin (GBR) 45:49; 20 David Proffitt (GBR) 53:41; 22 Andy Murray (GBR) 58:06; 24 R Sargent (GBR) 65:01

TEAM: 1 UKR 2:04:47; 2 ITA 2:05:33; 4 GBR 2:37:36

M70: 1 A Viroli (ITA) 41:05; 2 A Accalai (ITA) 42:08; 3 Ron Cattle (GBR) 43:39

TEAM: 1 ITA 2:11:59

M75: 1 A Peragine (ITA) 46:28; 2 H Wiedemeier (SUI) 48:57; 3 M Capponi (ITA) 49:39

TEAM: 1 ITA 2:53:23

M80: 1 A Jonson (SWE) 52:04; 2 P Widmer (SUI) 55:45; 3 L Serena (ITA) 55:56

TEAM: 1 ITA 3:15:46

M85: 1 G Sablone (SUI) 59:39; 2 I Hecico (ROU) 81:21

M90: 1 A Squadrone (ITA) 89:38

W35: 1 M Facciani (ITA) 34:44; 2 A Santos (POR) 35:09; 3 V Giustino (ITA) 36:43

TEAM: 1 ITA 1:51:04

W40: 1 S Santini (ITA) 36:22; 2 A Llorens (ESP) 36:35; 3 F de Sanctis (ITA) 37:49

TEAM: 1 ITA 1:56:25

W45: 1 M Mohamed (ITA) 36:38; 2 S Conceicao Lopes (ITA) 37:05; 3 S Raatz (GER) 37:20; 24 Barbie Ahearn (GBR) 73:15

TEAM: 1 ITA 1:51:50; 5 GBR 2:51:04

W50: 1 M Municchi (ITA) 41:17; 2 E Ghioc (ROU) 44:42; 3 Val Woodland (GBR) 44:52

TEAM: 1 ITA 2:13:20

W55: 1 C Elms (GBR) 41:09; 2 D Koller (SUI) 41:51; 3 S Ridley (GBR) 44:58; 4 Cathy Flitcroft (GBR) 45:26; 9 Sharyn Ramage (GBR) 49:31; 12 Sandra Martin (GBR) 60:25

TEAM: 1 GBR 2:11:33; 2 ITA 2:29:08

W60: 1 T Schultz-Lorentzen (DEN) 41:56; 2 G Toccafondi (ITA) 44:13; 3 M Ruzafa Manchon (ESP) 44:43; 13 Jacqui Maxwell (GBR) 52:57

TEAM: 1 ITA 2:22:13

W65: 1 B Minayo (ESP) 46:09; 2 M Hernaiz Del Campo (ESP) 47:22; 3 Mary Mackin (GBR) 47:46

W70: 1 E Kenny (IRL) 46:49; 2 A Galbani (ITA) 43:55; 3 I Illi (SUI) 55:25

W75: 1 M Nittel (GER) 60:03; 2 M Rocnakova (CZE) 69:57; 3 D Bruno Di Clarafond ((TA) 81:14

5km

M35 men: 1 A Malfagia (ITA) 16:04; 2 R Pinto (POR) 16:06; 3 L Benini (ITA) 16:12; 4 Richard Waldron (GBR) 16:25; 7 David Coak (GBR 16:56

TEAM: 1 ITA 49:01; 3 GBR 58:27

M40: 1 A Liuzzo (ITA) 14:50; 2 M Lang (GER) 15:19; 3 R Diz Diaz (ESP) 15:23; 21 Lee Llewellyn (GBR) 25:06

TEAM: 1 ITA 46:26; 3 IRL 61:20

M45: 1 J Diaz Carretero (ESP) 15:37; 2 V Pena Martinez (ESP) 15:46; 3 D Papoccia (ITA) 15:47; 30 Scott Armstrong (GBR) 21:44

TEAM: 1 ESP 47:51

M50: 1 D Figueiredo (POR) 16:05; 2 A Burlo (ITA) 16:14; 3 A Boumalik (ITA) 16:15; 6 Richard Jones (GBR) 16:37

TEAM: 1 ITA 48:53

M55: 1 M Biglione (ITA) 16:32; 2 D Caporale (ITA) 16:45; 3 JP Julien (FRA) 17:28; 16 Steve Worsley (GBR) 19:05; 17 Paul Smith (GBR) 19:42; 24 Alan Roberts (GBR) 23:13; 25 Dave Flitcroft (GBR) 24:44

TEAM: 1 ITA 51:28; 5 GBR 62:00

M60:  1 F Garcia Lopez (ESP) 17:13; 2 C Nottolini (ITA) 17:17; 3 M Leonardi (ITA) 17:37; 16 Steven Doxey (GBR) 21:22

TEAM: 1 ITA 53:46; 2 UKR 60:05

M65: 1 l Moser (ITA) 18:22; 2 A Adamo (ITA) 18:28; 3 V Trentin (ITA) 18:35; 19 Phil Jones (GBR) 24:32; 24 Andy Murray (GBR) 26:56; 25 Rob Sargent (GBR) 27:54; 26 Kevin Dillon (GBR) 28:03

TEAM: 1 ITA 55:25; 3 GBR 79:22

M70: 1 John Skelton (GBR) 19:37; 2 B Sarale (ITA) 20:25; 3 L Fernandez Suarez (ESP) 20:55; 5 Ron Cattle (GBR) 21:26

TEAM: 1 ESP 66:33

M75: 1 F Dossena (ITA) 21:48; 2 L Vannini (ITA) 23:48; 3 G Bianchi (ITA) 24:24

TEAM: 1 ITA 70:00

M80: 1 A Jonson (SWE) 25:37; 2 P Widmer (SUI) 26:39; 3 L Serena (ITA) 26:44

TEAM: 1 ITA 94:05

M85: 1 G Sablone (SUI) 27:11; 2 I Hecico (ROU) 36:40

M90: 1 A Squadrone (ITA) 42:48; 2 S Liverani (ITA) 45:26

W35 women: 1 A Santos (POR) 17:00; 2  M Facciani (ITA) 17:19; 3 V Giustino (ITA) 17:40; 5 Katy Roy (GBR) 18:17

TEAM: 1 ITA 52:45; 2 GBR 58:10

W40: 1 F Durante (ITA) 17:29; 2 S Santini (ITA); 3 M Kenny (IRL) 17:49; 4 Bethany Thompson (GBR) 18:33

TEAM: 1 ITA 54:19

W45: 1 M Mohamed (ITA) 17:22; 2 S Conceicao Lopes (ITA) 17:58; 3 M Velazquez (ESP) 18:02

TEAM: 1 ITA 54:38

W50: 1 M Federici (ITA) 19:01; 2 S Faustini (ITA) 19:27; 3 T Sportelli (ITA) 21:02; 7 Val Woodland 21:20

TEAM: 1 ITA 59:30

W55: 1 Clare Elms (GBR) 18:41; 2 M Massa (ITA) 19:14; 3 E Carrara (ITA) 19:36; 5 Sue Ridley (GBR) 21:10; 6 Debbie Matchett (GBR) 21:35; 7 Cathy Flitcroft (GBR) 21:35; 13 Sharyn Ramage (GBR) 23:38

TEAM: 1 ITA 59:32; 2 GBR 61:26

W60: 1 A Gratton (ITA) 20:30; 2 M Ruzafa Manchon (ESP) 20:56; 3 A Mazzoli (ITA) 21:05; 9 Jacqui Maxwell (GBR) 24:48; 14 Wendy Doxey (GBR) 30:36

TEAM: 1 ITA 63:01

W65: 1 B Minayo (ESP) 21:59; 2 O Mathys (SUI) 23:50; 3 C Barletta (ITA) 24:41

TEAM: 1 SUI 84:55;

W70: 1 E Kenny (IRL) 22:20; 2 A Galbani (ITA) 25:18; 3 I Illi (SUI) 25:30; 4 Ros Tabor (GBR) 26:25

TEAM: 1 LAT 1:40:00

W75: 1 M Nittel (GER) 27:12; 2 I Liepa (LAT) 38:53; 3 D Bruno Di Clarafond (ITA) 42:24

W80: 1 M Fragiacomo (ITA) 35:41

Half-Marathon

M35: 1 A Marangi (ITA) 68:55; 2 U Persi (ITA) 69:04; 3 M Idrissi (ITA) 71:12; 15 Mark Hayter (GBR) 1:33:03; 17 Gregory Mimms (GBR) 1:45:01

TEAM: 1 ITA 3:29:11; 3 GBR 4:47:54

M40: 1 M Ferrer Muro (ESP) 69:25; 2 P Rutigliano (ITA) 71:42; 3 C Mouelhi (FRA) 72:23

TEAM: 1 ESP 3:35:00

M45: 1 J Nshimirimana (ITA) 69:07; 2 J Diaz Carretero (ESP) 73:07; 3 W Mancuso (ITA) 73:34

TEAM: 1 ITA 3:37:03

M50: 1 D Figuiredo (POR) 71:54; 2 S Politi (ITA) 73:14; 3 G Calcaterra (ITA) 73:53

TEAM: 1 ITA 3:44:08

M55: 1 F Berardi (ITA) 77:57; 2 F Casagrande (ITA) 78:28; 3 A Quaglia (AUT) 78:43; 7 Robin Bentley (GBR) 80:47; 9 Pete Clough (GBR) 82:23; 19 Andy Parkin 89:50; 31 Alan Roberts 1:58:01

TEAM: 1 ITA 3:57:06; 2 GBR 4:13:00

M60: 1 M Vagnoli (ITA) 79:25; 2 C Nottolini (ITA) 79:40; 3 G Mattacola (ITA) 79:48; 4 P O’Grady (IRL) 80:10

TEAM: 1 ITA 3:58:53

M65: 1 V Trentin (ITA) 83:16; 2 R Rico (ESP) 84:35; 3 D Ruggero (ITA) 85:09; 6 Brian Martin (GBR) 89:26; 24 David Proffitt (GBR) 2:00:58; 25 Andy Murray (GBR) 2:05:59; 28 Phil Jones (GBR) 2:11:40

TEAM: 1 ITA 4:20:29; 4 GBR 5:36:23

M70: 1 Anthony Martin (GBR) 89:50; 2 E Toselli (ITA) 96:41; 3 R Bassani (ITA) 99:11

TEAM: 1 ITA 4:56:58; 2 UKR 5:34:03

M75: 1 H Wiedemeier (SUI) 1:49:10; 2 K Traub (SUI) 1:57:35; 3 V Sucha (CZE) 2:14:57

TEAM: 1 SUI 6:02:40

M80: 1 A Jonson (SWE) 2:08:40

M85: 1 G Sablone (SUI) 2:04:10

W35: 1 E Manenti (ITA) 81:10; 2 I Gorban (FRA) 1:24:57; 3 S Grasselli (ITA) 1:31:17

TEAM: 1 ITA 4:37:38

W40: 1 B Englisch (GER) 78:30; 2 S Tamburi (ITA) 78:32; 3 E Orru (ITA) 82:45; 4 Beth Thompson (GBR) 1:22:45

TEAM: 1 ITA 4:07:09; 2 GBR 4:41:25; 3 UKR 5:06:16

W45: 1 N Ciortan (ROU) 82:17; 2 S Conceicao Lopes (ITA) 1:23:13; 3 F Battachi (ITA) 83:49; 4 C O’Connor (IRL) 83:53

TEAM: 1 ITA 4:15:02

W50: 1 C Gelsomino (ITA) 80:42; 2 G Ungania (ITA) 86:51; 3 C Addonisio (ITA) 90:30

TEAM: 1 ITA 4:18:03

W55: 1 Clare Elms (GBR) 87:48; 2 C Brady (IRL) 90:41; 3 D Koller (SUI) 91:49

TEAM: 1 ESP 4:54:10

W60: 1 A Gratton (ITA) 94:23; 2 M Ramos Leon (ESP) 96:23; 3 E Toccafondi Grunwald (ITA) 96:53

TEAM: 1 ITA 5:00:23

W65: 1 C Frontespezi (ITA) 1:40:11; 2 M Heraiz del Campo (ESP) 1:45:18; 3 Margaret Martin (GBR) 1:48:58

TEAM: 1 SUI 5:48:00

W70: 1 L Illi (SUI) 2:02:33; 2 B Hellmark (SWE) 2:06:58; 3 G Pellegrino (ITA) 2:59:12

W75: 1 M Nittel (GER) 2:12:10

Walks events
There were also some well-supported walks with Italy again showing their long-standing walks tradition and why they had double success in Tokyo.

W40 Rosetta La Delfa won the overall women’s 20km walk in 1:51:53 while Latvian M50 Normunds Ivzans was the best of the men’s 30km walk in 2:46:11.

Ivzans was fourth in the 10km won overall by M45 Vincenzo Magliulo (48:00) though La Delfa (49:27) was a class apart in the women’s 10km.

Britain’s only individual walk medal was picked up in the 10km walk by 1980 Olympian (at 50km) Ian Richards  who won bronze in the M70 event in 59:43 just 41 seconds down on winner Alberti Pio (59:02).

Cath Duhig, who won European gold for Britain in 2019 is now based in Spain and won the W65 20km gold and silver in the 10km for Spain.

Britain’s only woman competitor was Italian-born Grazia Manzotti and she came fourth in the 10km having been in a medal position until the final lap.

The only Briton in the 30km was Ian Torode who was fourth M65 but he did pick up a M60 team bronze in the 10km together with Richards and M60 Colin Harle.

Italy also dominated the Nordic walk events.

10km Walk

M35: 1 R D’Ascanio (ITA) 53:29

TEAM: 1 ITA 2:41:03

M40: 1 L Latorre(ITA) 49:26

TEAM: 1 ITA 2:36:45

M45: 1 V Magliulo (ITA) 48:00

TEAM: 1 ITA 2:34:08

M50: 1 N Ivzans (LAT) 49:57

TEAM: 1 ITA 3:08:05

M55: 1 M Carvajal Ortega (ESP) 48:49

TEAM: 1 ESP 2:31:00

M60: 1 A Lopetuso (ITA) 54:31; 3 P Murphy (IRL) 58:38; 5 Colin Harle (GBR) 64:05

TEAM: 1 ITA 3:03:01; 2 GBR 3:13:35

M65: 1 E Alfieri (ITA) 56:14; 11 Ian Torode (GBR) 69:47

TEAM: 1 ITA 2:51:06

M70: 1 A Pio (ITA) 59:02; 3 Ian Richards (GBR) 59:43

TEAM: 1 ITA 3:13:06

M75: 1 E Formentin (ITA) 64:35; 2 J McMullin (IRL) 69:00

TEAM: 1 GER 3:41:01

M80: 1 A Michieletto (ITA) 82:38

M85: 1 A Jordana (FRA) 76:50

TEAM: 1 ITA 4:27:06

W35: 1 M Ambrosio (ITA) 56:31

TEAM: 1 ITA 3:01:07

W40: 1 R La Delfa (ITA) 54:54

TEAM: 1 ITA 2:43:01

W45: 1 V Pedetti (ITA) 52:26

TEAM: 1 ITA 2:43:08

W50: 1 K Bodorkos-Horvath (HUN) 55:55; 4 Grazia Manzotti (GBR) 56:55

TEAM: 1 ITA 2:51:50

W55: 1 M Ioele (ITA) 60:39

TEAM: 1 ITA 3:05:09

W60: 1 J Luniewska (POL) 62:18

W65: 1 D Ricciutelli (ITA) 63:28

W70: 1 M Mendes (POR) 64:20

TEAM: 1 FRA 3:44:01

W75: 1 U Klink (GER) 73:44

30km walk:

M35: 1 C Bouele (SUI) 3:32:07

M40: 1 V CastroMateo (ESP) 2:54:27

TEAM: 1 ESP 8:48:21

M45: 1 M Giachetti (ITA) 2:52:34

TEAM: 1 ITA 9:22:08

M50: 1 N Ivzans (LAT) 2:46:11

TEAM: 1 GER 9:22:12

M55: 1 J De Lucas Pasalodos (ESP) 2:56:24

TEAM: 1 ITA 9:56:19

M60: 1 J Munoz Belmonte (ESP) 3:03:52

M65: 1 E Alfieri (ITA) 3:15:04; 4 Ian Torode (GBR) 3:45:53

M70: 1 S Lehmann (GER) 3:32:33

M75: 1 J McMullin (IRL) 3:42:25

20km Walk:

W40: 1 R La Delfa (ITA) 1:51:53

TEAM: 1 ITA 6:20:17

W45: 1 V Pedetti (ITA) 1:54:27

W50: 1 K Bodorkos-Horvath (HUN) 1:58:19

TEAM: 1 ITA 6:11:10

W55: 1 P Furegon (ITA) 2:15:34

TEAM: 1 ITA 7:14:22

W60: 1 C Triebl (AUT) 2:41:45

W65: 1 C Duhig (ESP) 2:14:38

W70: 1 C Anxionnat (FRA) 2:32:40

W75: 1 U Klink (GER) 2:30:44

Medal table:

1 ITA 105 – 58- 46

2 ESP 24 – 27 -17

3 SUI 10 – 15 – 9

4 GER 9 -10-10

5 FRA 7 – 6 – 5

6 GBR 6 – 5- 9

7 POR 6 – 5- 2

8 LAT 4 – 2- 1

9 IRL 3 – 4- 9

10 SWE 3 – 1- 0