TAVISTOCK Athletic Club had a good turnout for the Cross-Country County Championships at Exeter on Sunday. Conditions were not ideal with recent rainfall making underfoot conditions treacherous in parts. The Tavistock Club saw success in the first race in the Under 13 boys event. Nick Champion was the only Tavistock runner and showed the good form that he is currently enjoying. In the final lap he fought his way into medal position and finished strongly in second place winning the silver medal and an automatic place in the Devon team for the Inter-counties. In the Under 15 girls? event Sarah Palmer and Laura Aspen represented Tavistock maintaining a strong pace. In the closing stages the Tavistock girls held off a challenge from the second Exeter runner with Laura finishing an excellent 7th following by Sarah 8th. In the Under 15 boys? race Tom Lawson and Matthew McNamara-Waddington were running for Tavistock. The boys had to contend with a very strong North Devon contingent but Tom ran well, maintained an excellent pace catching a South Devon runner to finish 4th, also earning an automatic place in the Devon team for the Inter-counties, with Matthew finishing in a creditable 14th position. In the Under 17 events Suzy Blandford and Ross Honey were running for Tavistock. Suzy finished 10th with Ross finishing 21st place in the U17 men?s event. Adam Holland ran in the Under 20 men?s event and had a great run to bring home another medal for the Tavistock club finishing 3rd and also earning automatic qualification for the Devon team. The Tavistock Senior and Veteran runners acquitted themselves very well with prizes in almost all categories in the Senior Mens? race over the demanding course over 11.75 kilometres. The field of athletes was quite small, but with County medals on offer, it attracted some of the strongest runners in Devon. Unfortunately, due to other commitments and injury there was no Ladies team from Tavistock but the Male runners more than made up for this. Finishing 8th overall, Jim Cole ran a great race to lead the club home. Richard Drage, Tony Symons and Steve Groombridge all made the top 20 with Chris Eastaugh, Robin Musgrave and Lachlan Mackay-Brown all featuring in the first 28 runners. Lachlan, who was competing in his first ever race, of any kind, ran well and finished strongly and can only improve with race and training experience. A hatful of medals were awarded to Tavistock demonstrating the quality and depth of runners. Awards were presented for 1st M45 Richard Drage, 3rd M40 Tony Symons, 1st M50 Steve Groombridge, 1st M55 Robin Musgrave. Tavistock also won the 1st Veteran Team (3 to count) and 1st Team overall (1st 6 runners to count). This is the second year in succession that the Trophy for Best Team in the County has been presented to Tavistock Athletics Club. Across the Tamar two Senior athletes represented Tavistock AC at The Cornwall Cross Country Championships at Newquay on Saturday. Gunnislake runner, Martin Exley finished 9th overall and became Champion for the Vets 45 category. New runner Ian Clark from Callington, in only his second cross country race, came a highly creditable 18th in a very tough race.
