THE Tavistock Athletic Club finished its year with the annual Christmas Handicap race on Whitchurch Down.

The number of runners was down on previous years partly due to the difficult road conditions but this was offset by impressive race times from the junior members of the club who did turn out. Despite the icy roads the weather was good and the runners were keen to challenge their previous times over the 4.1 mile course.

The first runner home and winner of the male trophy was junior club member Charlie Shipton who completed the course in a time of 32 mins 12 secs, reflecting an extraordinary improvement of 12 minutes on his last year's time.

Guest runner Kiran Poole was the next runner to finish in an impressive time of 34 mins 8 secs followed by junior club member Lucy Steven winning the female trophy and again recording an impressive three minutes improvement on her last year's time with a race time of 35 mins 8 secs. Lucy was chased to the line by her proud mum Caroline, who recorded a race time of 29 mins 43 secs.

The next runner home was Sam Lane de Courtin followed by running partner James Best in fifth and sixth places respectively. Sam's time of 22 mins 50 secs was the overall fastest time recorded over the course for over seven years and reflected a massive achievement for this U17s club runner. James' time of 23 mins 6 secs, also one of the fastest times in recent years, reflected a four minute improvement on his last year's time.

Ex-junior member of the club Reuben Grice was the next runner home in another impressive personal best time of 26 mins 9 secs with guest runner Ben Poole finishing in eighth place with another good time of 24 mins 5 secs.

Other club runners who supported the event included the indomitable Peter Bazley who finished in 10th place in a race time of 29 mins 13 secs; John Meek, who used the event as part of his training, in a time of 28 min 32 secs and Anne Lake who was unable to run but walked the course supporting the other runners.

Pictures by James Bird