AN EXCELLENT 46 Tavistock Athletic Club runners took part in the first Charles Stanley Westward League cross country race at Stover School on Sunday.

The club had nine complete teams in every age category in the league which bodes well for the season. Conditions at the school were hot and humid for the runners and the technical course always makes for interesting racing.

Usually the course is extremely muddy but good weather on Friday and Sunday had dried out the route to make racing it fast.

First off were the U11’s and there was a superb total of nine TAC athletes in this development race.

The next race was the U13 girls running over a 3,000m course. Amelia Riggot and Izzy Paige were the first club runners home out of five, in third and eighth respectively.

With just three boys running in the U13 boys’ race all three had to finish to give the team a position. The Tavistock runners did not disappoint coming home in ninth (Will White), 24th (Jacob Holland) and 25th (Nicolas Maczugowski).

In the 5,000m run for senior ladies, U17 men and U17 women, unfortunately some marshalling errors led to a little bit of chaos as to how many laps were completed. In the U17men Mike Barton had another strong run to finish eighth, Ed Smart was 10th and Brad Stevens had a cracking 12th place, having run Plymouth 10k in the morning. The team came second on the day.

In the senior women and under 17 women the club had 10 runners, who all had strong races in the hot conditions. Special mention must go to Sarah Holland making her debut for the club, who also ran in the Plymouth 10k in the morning. Then it was the turn of the U15 girls and boys in a combined race over a 4,500m course.

Ollie Smart was the individual winner with a magnificent kick for a sprint finish and with Will Russell (seventh) and Dan Luckham (16th) the team also came home second and looks good for the season. The girls had Tilly McDowell and Sophie Main having strong runs (11th and 12th respectively); with Charlotte Tilney coming in 22nd the team came fourth.

Last race of the day was the senior mens (5,900m) with Adam Holland making a welcome return to running for the club finishing 14th.

With a depleted team of just five seniors its going to be an uphill struggle for the men’s team this season.

Team manager for the day, Mhairi McCall said she was delighted with everyone’s efforts and it was great to see such a large turnout for the club.

Full results can be found at Tavistock Athletic Clubs facebook page.