WORCESTER Athletic Club’s Iris Holder captured two gold medals for Great Britain at the European Masters Indoor Championships in Ancona, Italy.

In the women’s 75 years section, Holder set a new British all-time record in the 60 metres with a winning time of 10.72s.

She then cleared 6.71m to win gold in the triple jump and grabbed a silver medal in the long jump with 3.08m. Holder is now the number one-ranked GB athlete for all three disciplines.

Holder was among four Worcester ladies’ athletics team members who made the long trip.

Making her Masters international debut, Wendy Bennett picked up a bronze medal after tackling both the 3k and the 5k race walks.

In the 5k race walk, Bennett attacked from the outset and was thrilled with a European bronze medal for third place in the very competitive W50 category In the 3k walk, which was of 15 laps of the 200m indoor circuit, Bennett was competing against more than 40 athletes, all in the same race.

Starting near the back of the pack, Bennett worked her way through to seventh by the 400m mark, before finishing in fourth.

Mel Garland (W50) entered multiple events and clinched a bronze medal with the W50 GB relay squad.

She ran 60m in 9.54s and 200m in 32.29s, followed by 1.30m in the high jump, 4.25m in the long jump and 9.30m in the triple jump.

In the W50 category, Garland was part of the the GB relay squad who stormed around in 2’04.28 to secure a bronze and a place on the podium, outperforming the Swedish quartet.

Jan Timberlake was another who enjoyed a successful outing as part of Team GB.

In the W45 javelin, Timberlake threw a very respectable 26.09m. moving her to third on the UK rankings.

In the high jump, Timberlake set a new age club record of 1.40m then followed it up with a 4.56m in the long jump. They were two new personal bests for Timberlake, which bodes well for the coming season.

Holder, having injured her shoulder in one of the jumps, withdrew from the W75 GB relay squad. However, with a time of 3’03.64 the British athletes won gold and set a new W75 World Record.

Worcester’s athletes returned from Italy with a host of seasonal and personal bests, a new British record and several European Championship medals.

They may have worn GB kit but while competing against more than 3,000 athletes from 41 countries but the four stars raised the profile of Worcester Athletic Club.