THE Tavistock Athletic Club Junior members had a busy weekend with the climax of the cross-country season fast approaching.

The previous weekend saw many of the club's junior members competing on two consecutive days with the regional schools championships on the Saturday followed by the penultimate meeting of the Westward League on the Sunday. The club had seven juniors competing at the South West Schools Cross Country Championships, held at NAS Merryfield in Somerset.

Emily Attfield (Devonport High School) competed for Devon in the Minor Girls Age group coming an excellent 10th place competing the 2,625 metre course in a time of 10.24 minutes. She was the second Devon girl to finish helping the Devon team into second place overall. Emily Ackford (Plymouth College) then raced for Devon in the junior girls race finishing the 3,150metre course in 12.15 minutes coming in 16th place to securing second place for her Devon team.

Ellen Riis-White (Kelly College) ran in the inter girls race completing the 3850 metres in a time of 14.38 minutes finishing overall 14th position and securing second place for her Devon team with Alice Rogers (Plymouth College) finishing in 45th.

TAC had Sam Lane de Courtin (Callington College) representing Cornwall and Jordan Channon (Kelly College) representing Devon. They ran in a 3,850 metre race with Sam finishing 16th (second Cornish boy) in a time of 13.03 and Jordan coming in 24th in a time of 13.16 - again a superb achievement as he is also still in year 8. In the inter boys race Josh Carnell (Kelly College) ran the 5,925 metres in a fast time of 21.44 mins, coming in 34th.

The top six finishers for their county in each age group (year 8 upwards)  have been selected to represent their counties at the English Schools National Cross Country Final next month in Nottingham. The club wishes the best of luck to Emily, Ellen, Sam, Jordan and Josh at the nationals and congratulates all athletes who took part in this race and to everyone who took part and competed for their schools in the previous races. 

In the Westward League on the Sunday at Bovey Tracy conditions were challenging with a wet and muddy cross-country course. In the U17s men's race George Speak ran strongly from the start to finish in an excellent fourth place with Josh Carnell coming home in overall 17th place and Sam Lloyd in 18th. In the U13 girls' race both Emily Ackford and Emily Attfield as with Josh Carnell in the previous race showed real commitment having competed on the previous day. Both girls ran strongly with Emily Ackford fourth place and Emily Attfield running well to finish in seventh. The boys event saw another victory for Jordan Channon who has now achieved maximum points with first places in all the league events to date and Josh Boon finishing in an impressive fourth.

In the U15 boys' race there was another outstanding result for the Tavistock club with James Best recording his best ever finish in a Westward League by finishing third with Harrison Baker in sixth. All the competitors have a brief respite before the National Schools event and the final Westward League meeting next month.