ATHLETES have been a credit to Tavistock Athletic Club in the last few days, demonstrating their strength and depth in a great variety of quality races.

TAC shone in the Dartmoor Discovery Ultra Marathon, winning the team prize for the first time. Organised by Teignbrige Trotters, this extraordinarily tough road race starts and finishes at Princetown and has a real cult following. With numbers limited to 260, it is always oversubscribed.

TAC's Joe Beaton, who won overall last year, took second place in 3hr 37min 17s, just 6 minutes behind Bideford AAC's Joe Benford (who broke the course record at TAC's last Tavy 5k race just three weeks ago). Joe, plus Adam Holland, finishing in 16th place in 4:27:30, and Ian Trice, finishing in 5:07:35, made up the winning TAC team, by virtue of their best-aggregated positions. Soozie Trice also took part, finishing 4th VF45 in 5:18:03.

Saturday 8 saw the running of the annual Buckland Bounder race, one of the Dartmoor Fell series and held as part of the Buckland Monachorum Summer Fair. TAC's Charlotte Walker, who at 20 years old continues to go from strength to strength, won the ladies race in 44min 39s, beating experienced fell runner Jo Meek into second place.

Also completing the gruelling race were fellow TAC athletes Thomas Brogden, 4th overall in 41:03; Carol Walters, 55:31; Steve Cox, 55:15; Pete Bazley, 58:23 and Tim Haines, 1:08:43.

On Wednesday 5, the third race in the Run Exe 5k series was held, organised by City Runs. This race series always attracts a high-quality field of runners due to its traffic-free and pancake-flat nature, giving great opportunities for those seeking personal best times.

TAC's Adam Holland took 2nd place overall (1st M35) in an amazing time of 15min 50s. He was followed by Charlotte Walker (1st FU20), 17:47; Mark West (3rd M50), 18:45; Sam Lake (2nd F45), 19:42; Kate Rogers (1st F65), 27:04; and Hazel Walker, 28:45.