VICTORIA Wilkinson made a golden return to the international running scene in Portugal on Saturday.

The 36-year-old from Hebden was part of the Great Britain quartet which won the women's team title at the European Mountain Running Championships in Madeira Portugal.

They had three runners Emma Clayton (third), Wilkinson (sixth) and Rebecca Robinson (ninth) in the top ten with their fourth team-member, Annie Conway finishing 11th.

With the best three finishes counting Great Britain had a total of 18points which put them seven ahead of their nearest challengers who were Austria, France were a distant third on 38.

Wilkinson completed the testing uphill course in 55min 03sec in a race that was dominated for the third-successive year by the Austrian Andrea Meyr who returned an impressive time of 50:40.

Clayton, a former Bingley Harriers colleague of Wilkinson, used her greater speed to good effect as she claimed the bronze medal in 53:36.

Wilkinson, was understandably delighted with her team's gold medal triumph. She said: "Getting three finishers in the top ten was a tremendous effort.

"We knew we had a strong team and to all finish so close together was perfect. It was something we had hoped for after battling it out in the trial race.

"The course was heavily wooded with a lot of steps. It was a real test but I managed to hold my own and I was really pleased to get sixth place and to win a team gold medal for the second time."

Wilkinson, who will be running in the third round of the English Fell Running Championship in the Isle of Man where one of her opponents will be her Great Britain team-mate Conway.

She is still undecided about whether to bid for selection for September's World Mountain Running Championships.

They are being staged in Wales with a Great Britain team trial being run over the championship course in August.

"That is an up and down event whereas the Europeans was just uphill," she said. "I prefer uphill as it suits my style of running, but I will see how I am going before deciding if I will have a crack at getting into the team."