ON a wet, muddy Sunday, Tavistock athletes of all ages brought home a haul of medals from Sunday's Brooks Devon County Cross Country Championships at Exeter Arena. This year the event was combined with the third round of the Brooks Westward Cross Country League, so more emphasis was put on good performances. The day started with a joint U17/U20/Senior ladies' race. From a speedy start, Commonwealth Games triathlete Flora Duffy from Kelly College put Tavistock into an early lead on the three-lap, hilly course. Along with athletes from Bideford and Plymouth, they soon opened a 30-metre lead over the second Tavistock woman Jo Kelsey. But the race was far from over and as conditions began to play their part, Kelsey judged her tactics to perfection. Passing the leaders in turn from the end of lap one she took Duffy at the start of lap three and continued to power away to win the race and the Devon Senior title by a clear distance with Duffy in second. As the first Under 20, Duffy also took gold in her category. To complete the picture, Sarah Palmer took the bronze medal in the U17 category with team-mate Samantha Fraser surely booking a place at the Nationals in the spring in fifth. With Duffy unable to score in the Senior event, team-mates Heather Fell and Rachel Short returned their own top six performances to bring the Senior team title home to Tavistock. Continued improvement in junior performance was a theme for the day, beginning with U13s. The girls' squad of Clare Fraser, Sarah Hornby and Kate Martin just missed out on team medals but the U13 boys were more fortunate with Ben Brown, Sam Eaton and Dan Quick, supported by Sam Lloyd taking an excellent second place in the county team event. The U15s produced two of the best two individual performances of the day with a rapidly improving Matt McNamara Waddington taking county bronze in the boys' race and Rebecca Windemer going one better for silver in the girls' event. Great support from Nick Champion, Sam Straughan and Owen Drage took the boys to a third team position. The final race of the day saw the defending champions of the Tavistock men's squad compete for honours in the U20, senior and veteran categories. Senior club athlete of the year, Jim Cole again led the way with another outstanding performance. Rounding off a year full of achievement, he timed his climb through the field to perfection, taking a county bronze medal and only being beaten by GB Internationals Kevin Heywood and John Ward of Bideford. Despite marvellous debuts from newcomers Harry Wiltshire and Pete Freedman in top ten places, the strength in depth of the Bideford squad proved decisive and Tavistock had to settle for team silver with Richard Drage, Chris Champion and Tony Symons completing the team. In the individual event, Champion landed bronze in the 40-44 age group, Drage and Symons secured silver and bronze in the 45-49 category. Tavistock's second county gold went to Paul Sturtridge with yet another outstanding effort in the 50-55 age-band that he has dominated all season. Barring any mishaps, his lead for the Westward League title now looks unassailable. Representing the Royal Navy, local resident Bob Chapman took the 55-59 crown from Tavistock's Robin Musgrave. In the men's veteran team category, a rule change allowing 35-39 year old athletes to count for the first time ever meant that Tavistock's squad of over 40s could not hold off the younger Bideford contingent who came away with the honours, leaving Drage, Champion, Symons and Sturtridge with team silver. With a total turnout of 16 in the men's race, Tavistock added to their Westward League standings at the mid-season stage.
