THE sixth and final round of the prestigious Charles Stanley Westward Cross Country League took place at Redruth on Sunday.

The poor weather conditions over the previous few days had led to a drop in entrants from all clubs and caused a significant increase in mud on the course.

Tavistock Athletic Club had 27 athletes running in the various age categories as they tried to secure team and individual medals for the league series.

The first race of the day was the under 11 development race with just two Tavistock athletes running - Matilda Riggot finished 15th and Thomas Harris 20th. Matilda’s storming run was enough to give her third place overall in the league.

Next race was the combined senior women, U17s women and U17 men’s race. Brad Stevens, who was chasing individual silver pushed on at the front end of the field; despite his great run in finishing third he still had to settle for bronze in the league. With Mike Barton having a strong run as well, the team took second place overall.

In the women’s race (combined with the U17 women) Natasha Farrington had a superb run to finish eighth ahead of team mate Jenny Sabine in 13th and Caroline Steven in 18th. With Issy Dunlop (22nd), Cathy Dunlop (29th), Emma White (31st), Tracy Oxborough (34th), Soozie Trice (48th) and Sarah Holland (57th) the team picked up an excellent overall third place in the league. The season was a tribute to the strong running from all of the TAC ladies - their strength in depth proving too much for many other teams.

The third race was the U13 girls over a 3,000m course. Tavistock’s Amelia Riggot took on the challenge and went to the front early in the race. She held on for victory by nine seconds, clinching second place overall in the league. With Krystina Cade in fourth and Emma Luckham in 18th the girls did enough to secure second team place in the league as well.

The U13 boys ran over the same course with Will White finishing ninth, Ewan Dix having his best run of the season to finish 11th and Jacob Holland running hard for 15th.

The five mile (8km) men’s race was run through a heavy hail and rain storm.

Will Dax continued his improvement this season and had a ‘storming’ run to finish sixth (and eighth overall in the league). Next home was Martin Exley-Deane who had been supposed to be running Bath Half Marathon but this was cancelled due to the poor weather. Exley-Deane was 23rd on the day and this gave him 20th in the league and another victory in his age category.

Richard Drage continued his comeback with a 28th place and second place in the veteran 55 category behind Exley-Deane. Club stalwarts Dave Harris (43rd) and Richard Best (49th) brought the team home. The men’s team finished a credible sixth place overall.

The final race of the day was a combined U15 boys and girls race over 4,000m. Tilly McDowell had her highest position of the season with second place (overall seventh in the league). In the boys’ race Will Russell and Joe Dix had a good battle with Will getting the better of Joe by 14 seconds and the boys finishing fourth and fifth respectively and securing team silver.

Club chair, Alistair Kinsey said he was delighted with the club’s strong performance in the league.

He told Times Sport: ‘To pick up four team medals and seven individual category medals shows what strength in depth the club has, that it is one of the most reputable clubs in the South West and is a testament to the excellent coaching across all age groups. Most importantly it’s a tribute to the hard and consistent work by the Tavistock AC runners.’