FIVE Tavistock Athletic Club runners made the long trip to Norfolk on March 18 to one of the most prestigious cross country races in the country – The English Schools.

The races were held on the pancake flat Norfolk County Showground which was a novelty for the runners used to training on the hills of Tavistock and the surrounding areas. The athletes were representing the cream of runners from schools across all the English counties. Each county team is only allowed to select eight athletes, so all competitors are the very best in their age groups and it’s widely considered to be a great honour to run in a county vest.

TAC had four runners representing Devon and one representing Cornwall. All runners faired well after the debilitating nine hour coach journey.

In the junior girls (3.25km) was Tilly McDowell who finished 182nd (out of 344 finishers) and was the first Cornish runner home in an impressive performance from the athlete, who has only recently returned to training having broken her collar bone.

Next off were the intermediate girls who were running 3.75km. Tasha Farrington had a strong run to finish 80th (out of 345 finishers). In the senior girls Emma Ryder, normally a middle distance runner used to running 800m, battled gamely to finish 241 on the 4km course. Then it was the boys turn. Ollie Smart had a stellar run to finish 10th out of 345 in the junior boys’ race over 4km. Ollie was selected to be a non travelling substitute for the England team the following weekend.

The last of the Tavistock athletes to race was Tom Brew in the intermediate boys over the 6km course. Tom finished 242 out of the 338 athletes.

The Tavistock athletes were congratulated by club chair Martin Exley-Deane, who also thanked their coaches, Mark Botham, Mhairi McCall and Dave Chanter for all their hard work.