THREE athletes from Tavistock Athletic Club competed in the flat and fast Cubert five-miler near Newquay earlier this month.

Ann-Marie Chater, running her first race for the club, excels at longer races where her endurance is put to the test. This event was a relatively short distance for her, but she has been doing some tough speed work on the track, training with the club's Coe group under the new leadership of coach Allan Herdman. Ann-Marie put in a very good performance, finishing in 43 minutes, 20 seconds.

Gary, her husband, finished in 34.54, while Tony Symonds averaged sub-six minute mile pace to finish in 29.32 and fourth in his MV50+ age category.

The following weekend saw a larger TAC contingent taking part in the Ruby Run, a half marathon which takes competitors from Hatherleigh to Holsworthy, alternating the start/finish between the two towns. This year the start was in Hatherleigh, the more difficult of the two directions. The day started cool and overcast, but as the race got underway, the clouds cleared and warm sunshine pushed temperatures up.

Peter Bazley was the first of the ten TAC entrants to finish in a fast 1hr 39mins 6secs, earned a platinum award for his age/time. Andy Houghton (1.47.56) also gained platinum, as did Trevor Williams (1.55.25).

Once again, Christine Le Flem was the club's star competitor. Christine, who finished in 2.02.04, not only ran fast enough to earn a diamond award but she was also won the FV55+ age category, despite being more than a decade older. Tony Shearer ran a gold award time of 1.50.25, Jason Shipton was second TAC to the finish in 1.42.14 and earned silver, as did Paul Marshall who completed in 1.50.15.

Graham De Val (1.54.02) and John Windemer (2.13.54) both gained bronze awards, and Caron De Val brought the TAC contingent home in 2.23.03.