THE Virgin London Marathon and mini marathon saw two junior members of Tavistock Athletic Club competed in the shorter event and nine seniors raced the marathon distance of 26.2miles.

Emily Attfield and Sam Lane De Courtin had been selected by England Athletics to represent the South West – a huge honour not only for these two talented athletes, but also for the club and its junior coaches. Their three-mile race started in Old Billingsgate along streets lined with many thousands of spectators, to the finish on the Mall.

Both put in sparkling performances. Emily was racing in the U13 girls category and finished 14th in her group in a superb 18minutes, 33seconds. Sam competed in the U15 boys and ran a sub six minute mile to finish in 16.41, 52nd in his group. Both athletes should rightly be tremendously proud of their achievement – two excellent results.

Across London, at Blackheath, more than 37,000 runners awaited the start of the main race, in chilly conditions that were later to become near perfect for running.

Four club members - Gary Chater, Hannah Colston, Claire Pitcher and Paul Bumford —were running a marathon for the first time. Some were also raising money for charity – Ann Woodhouse, Hannah, Claire and Paul between them raised more than £5,000 for their chosen charities.

Tony Symons and Charlie Lloyd both ran a sub-three hour race and both achieved personal bests. Tony had trained hard for the last six months and was hugely deserving of his excellent result, finishing in 2hours 50mins 46seconds in 553rd position overall and 16th in his M50 age category. Charlie also ran an unrelenting race - his first as a M50, and gained a PB by over four minutes to finish in 2.59.32 and 51st in his age group.

Next TAC to the finish, comfortably under four hours was Paul Marshall running his fifth marathon, and second London. Paul missed a PB by just two minutes, but recorded a fast 3.44.04 to finish 154th in the M55 group.

Other TAC times: Paul Bumford 4.59.18, Gary Chater 4.22.39, Hannah Colston 4.31.45, Claire Pitcher 4.38.04, Liz Vernon 4.51.18, Ann Woodhouse (finishing 65th in her age group) 6.16.05.