THE Plymouth Half Marathon deserves its reputation as one of the country's finest road races with the splendid setting of Plymouth Hoe for the start and finish and first class facilities and attention to detail laid on by the organisers.
But the course is not one you'd necessarily choose for your first half marathon or to try and make a personal or club record — try telling that to Fiona Dunn or Patricia Hewitt, who both had excellent races last Sunday.
Twenty-four Tavistock Athletic Club members entered. Fiona, in her first full year of running for the club, broke her own club half marathon record with an excellent 1 hour 37 minutes. And Patricia was the third Tavistock lady home in 2 hours 5 minutes, a remarkable achievement given that this was her first attempt at this distance.
Allan Herdman led the Tavistock runners home in a personal best of 1 hour 29 minutes, with Tony Symons, recovering from injury, only 24 seconds behind. Chris Eastaugh was third home in 1 hour 31 minutes. Second lady in for the club was Nicole Heryet, herself recovering from a horrific injury and almost back to best form in 1 hour 47 minutes.
Full Tavistock results: 124th, Allan Herdman, 1:29:40; 131st, Tony Symons, 1:30:04; 169th, Chris Eastaugh, 1:31:57; 219th, Mike Lewis, 1:34:00; 231st, Pete Bazley, 1:34:30; 326th, Fiona Dunn, 1:37:30; 372nd, Robert Kirby, 1:38:25; 457th, Chris Halliday, 1:41:11; 485th, Robert Dawe, 1:41:53; 544th, Roger Hewitt, 1:43:49; 593rd, Andy Smith, 1:44:29; 746th, Nicole Heryet, 1:47:53; 825th, Adrian Bower, 1:50:03; 1050th, Trevor Williams, 1:56:12; 1201st, Roger Downing, 1:58:33; 1433rd, Patricia Hewitt, 2:05:12; 1461st, Anna Johnson, 2:05:42; 1462nd, Carole Edwards, 2:05:42; 1526th, Sally Pike, 2:07:25; 1527th, Keith Bowles, 2:08:45; 1689th, Marion Playle, 2:13:12; 1725th, Helen Bond, 2:14:52; 1736th, Rhian Johnson, 2:15:26; 1777th, Judi Turner, 2:17:18.
A week earlier was the final day of the Devon County Track and Field Championships at Braunton. Yet more medals made their way back to Tavistock with Shane Wonnacott leading the haul with three fine golds. U13 boys: Jake Rendle, shot putt, 4th, long jump, 7th; Nathan Wonnacott, shot putt, 7th, discus, 3rd. U20 Men: Adam Holland, triple jump, 2nd, 3000k walk, 1st (county record). Senior women: Fiona Dunn, 400 metres, 3rd, 1500 metres 1st. M40: Shane Wonnacott, discus, 1st, hammer, 1st, triple jump, 1st. M55: Nigel Rendle, discus, 1st.