IT has been another great year for the Tavistock Run Project (TRP), which was formed by Dave Chanter in 2013 with the objective of developing all areas of running within the community.

Initially the concept was a blank canvas but soon evolved into a small training group, attracting a disparate group of athletes both unattached and local club runners who had a desire to take their running to the next level.

With a platform of training under the direction of coach Dave Chanter the group which included Becky Mingo, Sam Lake and Ben Neal had particular success over the marathon and this success attracted more runners to the group.

As the group continued to evolve it was decided to become an affiliated club and under the chairmanship of Steve Watson, TRP became a club affiliated to England Athletics in October.

Dave Chanter told Times Sport: ‘The club is run by runners and the overriding ethos is to be athlete centred and not numbers orientated and it is the group’s aim to stick to this ideal as it continues to grow. ’Since our affiliation we have had notable success with four of our runners representing Devon in the Inter Counties half marathon Champs together with wins in the Plymouth 10k and Tavy 7; however. the club are not elitist and has within its ranks athletes across the spectrum of times.

‘One of our objectives is to be able to help runners strive to improve. I think there is a void within athletics now compared to perhaps 25 years ago where we are witnessing a kind of bell shaped demographic whereby performances at the head of races are high and participation is constantly growing but there is a distinct fall off of what I would call the “athletic class” — eg those runners who run between 1 hour 16 minutes – 1 hour 25 minutes for the half marathon.

‘As an example, I look at a result from the Plymouth 10 miles in 1989 when 55 minutes did not make the top 20, I would suggest that today in similar race this might make the top 10. As such TRP through its innovative coaching and group ethic will strive to take more people into that “athletic class”.

‘TRP will continue to evolve and grow, maybe becoming a blueprint for athletic clubs in the future. It has under its umbrella a sports injury clinic and it has plans to run a series of workshops on various aspects of running. It is developing a network of coaches and has already set up an improvers group to introduce running within the community.’

In the New Year TRP is launching a junior section to help in the development of the next generation of runners.