THERE was an apparent disappointing number of Tavistock athletes competing at the prestigious South West Cross-country championships but this was because a record 14 Tavistock athletes were running wearing Devon colours and competing for both Tavistock Athletic Club and Devon County with two other club members running for Cornwall and Somerset respectively. The championships were staged at Bicton College in good dry conditions. In the Under 13 girls' race Claire Fraser produced an excellent performance and got the year off to a great start, finishing in a tremendous third place as the first Devon runner home and winning the bronze medal with fellow Tavistock athletes Sarah Hornby finishing in 13th place and Annabel Longden coming home in 61st position. All three Tavistock girls were running in Devon colours and enjoyed the success of seeing Devon win the team event. In the Under 13 boys' race, Dan Quick, also running for Devon, finished in 25th place. The Under 15 girls' event saw another Tavistock athlete running in Devon colours with Rebecca Windemer finishing in 32nd place. The Under 15 boys' race included a strong Tavistock contingent with the appropriately named Nick Champion running as the Devon Under 15 boys' champion leading the Devon contingent home in 12th position. Sam Straughan showing an improved performance finished in 17th place with Matt Harding in 22nd place and George Speak in 31st place. The Devon team finished just outside a medal position but the four boys all contributed to an excellent result for the club with Tavistock winning the silver medal in the club team event. In the senior men's race Jim Cole ran strongly to finish in 11th place with Peter Freedman finishing in 18th, both men representing their club and county. Martin Exley finished in 50th place, representing Cornwall, and Robin Musgrave finished in 84th place. In the senior ladies' race Heather Fell also had an excellent run finishing in overall ninth place and finishing as the second Devon lady. Devon won the team event in both the senior men's and senior ladies' races. In the Under 17 men's event an inter-county clash developed between two Tavistock runners with Tom Lawson, running for Somerset, showing a good return to his true form and Tom Gill making an increasing impact with his running. Tom Lawson finished in 11th place just a second ahead of Tom Gill in 12th position. In the final race of the day in the Under 17 ladies' event, Laura Aspen and Sammy Fraser were again representing both their club and county. Laura had her usual strong start but as the race developed Sammy moved through the field to pull ahead of her fellow club member. In a final push Laura crossed the line just ahead to finish in 15th place with Sammy finishing just four seconds behind in 16th place. Again both girls enjoyed the success of Devon winning the team event.
