19/10/2025
It’s a been a whirlwind couple of days in Funchal, Madeira.
But, worth every second.
Total Sports Performance coached athlete, Birchfield Harrier Charlie Thurstan took to the track on Friday and comfortably qualified for the 800m final at the Desportivo Municipal Stadium in Ribeira Brava on Saturday morning.
Taking to the track against UK number 1 ranked 1500m Stoke AC athlete, Dean Richardson - he knew it was shaping up to be an epic battle of Coe V Ovett proportions as Dean had already made light work of becoming European Champion in the three and three quarter lap event.
In a perfectly executed battle of the British Number 1 ranked middle distance athletes - Charlie made his move with just under 300 metres to go and extended his lead by 10 metres to breeze through the line 800m European Champion for the second time since Aarhus in 2017.
With our goals for this years European Champs firmly achieved, Charlie was offered the opportunity to join the 4 x 400m mixed relays. A role that was given with no small amount of reservation as Charlie had not run a competitive 400 since 2017 where he medalled in second place at the British Championships.
Taking to the track in one of the very last track events of the 10 day European Championships, Charlie reeled in the lead athlete in the third leg - running an unofficial split of 51.88 (the fastest leg of the team and almost two seconds faster than the individual 400m Gold Medal at these champs were won in) to help secure a Team Silver and new British Record!
We think either of the achievements are worth shouting loud about but just 4 hours apart - we feel they are all but super-human!
We hope you will all join us in congratulating Charlie and the rest of the relay team on an outstanding Championship and wishing our Total Sports Performance coach, Steve - my husband - a well earned retirement from the sport.
“Hanging up my stopwatch after these incredible performance by Charlie has been the final page of the final chapter I could only dream of!”
Well done to all involved.
