SATURDAY proved to be a busy day for athletes of all ages from Tavistock Athletic Club.

The club was represented by an amazing 66 runners at the penultimate race in the Charles Stanley Westward League cross country season at Central Park Plymouth (changed from the scheduled Sunday due to Plymouth Argyle's FA cup match), and three senior TAC runners raced extremely well at the Exeter half Marathon.

At Central Park, the weather was kind - dry and chilly with little mud underfoot. The first race, as always, was the Under 11s and yet again it was Olivia Walkerdine who led the TAC girls home followed by Harriet Sylvester and Serena Bigham.

The three made up the girl’s team, which is now in the silver medal position going into the final race. In the U11 boys race it was Reuben Taylor, Thomas Cleland and Toby Sylvester who ran well over the 1-mile course.

The following women's race was over the tougher 3-5 mile course. Jasmine Gray had a storming run, chased hard by debutant Hannah Smith.

Backed up by 12 other TAC ladies, the team turned in another great performance, lifting them to 6th place in the league whilst the vet ladies held on to their league lead. Sam Lake leads the FV45 category, Hannah Worth is second in the FV40, Caroline Steven leads the FV55 and Carole Walters lead the FV60 category.

In the U13 girls race that followed, Mary Brogden and Matilda Hobbs ran valiantly for 18th and 20th places, whilst in the U13 boys race Tristan Bigham finished a strong 7th followed by Charlie Cleland in 13th position.

Next, the senior men had 5.5 miles to run. Tom Brogden ran to a strong 19th place, improving his V40 category position to 2nd overall. David Harris also put in a solid shift to achieve bronze medal position in the V60 category.

Last but by no means least was the combined U15 boys and girls event.

Showing his recent fine form, Freddie Whybrow gained a hard-fought second place. Zoe Bigham also had a great race for third place, backed up by Grace Gokhale and Suzie Woodrow to take the team to 4th place overall with the possibility of second place in the final event. The boys team also finished 4th with the opportunity to improve this at the final race at Redruth.

Elsewhere, at the Exeter half marathon, TAC club chairman Mark West ran an excellent race to win his M50 category in 1hr 25min 42s - a feat made more impressive as he included the 13.1-mile race distance within an overall 20-mile training run towards his London Marathon in April.

Teammate and fellow London Marathon trainee Ian Collacott also did well, coming 5th in his M40 category in 1:33:03, followed by Molly Bytheway in 1:42:53.

Pictured is TAC U11 competitor Thomas donning a striking red Tavistock Athletic Club shirt.

Tavistock Athletic Club was formed in 1985 and now has over 300 members across Junior (8 years +) and Senior groups.

They pride themselves on being a friendly, family club and hold training sessions on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday evenings and also on a Saturday morning. The main session, and probably the best one to introduce you to the club, is on Tuesday evening.