ON a sunny Sunday morning in July at the Tavistock Carnival, Tavistock Rotary Club’s annual five-mile race was graced by some very special runners.

The runners set off from the West Devon Borough Council offices at Kilworthy, crossed the viaduct to run along the old railway track. After turning up Crease Lane, the route took them to Mill Hill Quarry and then back along the same route.

Rotary Club vice president Graham Parker started the race and presented the medals to all runners.

Jo Meek of Winchester Club won the race in a time of 32 minutes 03 seconds. Jo is a world-rated ultra marathon runner and is one of the top road runners in the UK.

The Tavistock 5 was a warm up for Jo for the Laugavegur Ultra 55km race in Iceland the following weekend, which Jo also won magnificently in a new women’s course record.

Julie Towers of Launceston was second in 36m 53s and Manfred Jahncke, an overseas runner visiting from Hannover, Germany, was third in 38m 48s.

Lottie Allen ran away with the draw prize of cream tea for two, kindly donated by The Bedford Hotel. All monies raised will be donated to local charities.

Rotary Race organiser David Tout said: ‘This was a wonderful race and we were very proud to have attracted runners of the calibre of Jo, Julie and Manfred. These were great performances and we were extremely pleased to hear that Jo went on to give such a magnificent per-formance in Iceland.

‘After a couple of difficult years, it’s great to have this very popular race firmly back in the calendar. As well as being a physical challenge, many runners really enjoy the spectacular views that the course affords of the beautiful countryside around Tavistock.’