IN a busy weekend of local races, a number of less well-known runners demonstrated the continued progress of Tavistock Athletics Club as a local force. On Saturday evening in a challenging 5 mile trail race in aid of the Jeremiah?s Journey Charity at Cann Woods near Plympton, Tavistock?s Tony Symons was the second finisher in the race and first in the 40-44 age group. Moving up through the field as the many hills took their toll on the other runners, the distance was not quite long enough for Tony as he closed on the leader, Martin O?Connell of Tamar Trotters, eventually missing out by just 9 seconds in a time of 29min 43 secs. Fellow veteran Chris Eastaugh also ran superbly in the main race, finishing 8th, whilst Peter Bazley took an outstanding first in the male 45-49 category in 34min 31secs. In the ladies? race Rachel Short showed the degree of her improvement over her 9 months with the club by taking the prize for second lady. Not content with this, Rachel then returned to Plymouth to finish as third lady the very next morning in the tough Plymouth 10 Kilometre race in Central Park. With fellow Tavistock athlete Nicole Heryet also finishing in the top 5 ladies in the 10K race and Bazley returning to finish an overall 32nd and in the top 10 male over 40?s, this rounded off another very successful weekend of local races for the club. Meanwhile, also on Sunday a contingent of 19, mainly junior athletes made the journey to Exeter Arena to compete in the fourth and final Devon Track and Field League meeting of the season. Tavistock are the current holders of this league title but look set to be runners up this time around. Final points have yet to be tallied but North Devon came into the final meeting with an unassailable lead with Tavistock more concerned with ensuring that they would not be overtaken on the final day. There were some very encouraging performances from the juniors and the full results will appear very soon on the club website at http://www.tavistockathletics.com">www.tavistockathletics.com
