TEENAGERS Will Battershill and Poppy Tank stole the show at the second leg of the Frank Elford Sports Westward Cross Country League at Newquay.
The duo, who last year were competing in the under-17 age group, dominated the senior races on Sunday.
Erme Valley Harriers’ Battershill, who competed for Great Britain in the steeplechase at the World Junior Championship in Columbia in the summer, won by 10 seconds in the men’s race over the six-mile muddy course at Newquay Sports Centre.
The 17-year-old Ivybridge Community College pupil clocked 30 minutes and 12 seconds to beat experienced Bideford pair Shaun Antell and Mark Jenkin to victory. Antell came second in 30:22, with his team-mate Jenkins, who won the first race at Plymouth, third in 30.24.
Tamar Trotters’ Mike Wilsmore was 11th in 32.12. Plymouth Harriers finished fifth team in the senior race, with Erme Valley seventh, City of Plymouth 10th and Tamar Trotters 12th.
Meanwhile, Tank destroyed a good women’s field, winning by nearly 30 seconds and beating most of the under-17 men, who ran at the same time.
The City of Plymouth runner finished her race in 20.15, with Cornwall’s veteran marathon star Emma Stepto second in 20.44 and Tavistock teenager Tess Masselink, another to have moved up from the under-17s ranks, third in 20.53.
Erme Valley Harriers’ Cloe Perry was fourth senior women (fifth overall) and first over-40 in 21.32, with Plymouth Harriers’ Ami Yetton two places behind in 21.38.
City of Plymouth were second women’s team home, with Tavistock fifth, Erme Valley fifth and Plymouth Harriers eighth.
There was a good run by Tavistock’s Natasha Farrington in the under-15 girls’ race. She came third behind Cornwall AC’s Grace Brook and Newton Abbot’s Molly Canham. Farrington’s team-mate Sarah Bull was sixth.
Tavistock’s Tilly McDowell also claimed a top 10 finish in the under-13 girls’ event, finishing eighth, while in the under-11 age group, Erme Valley’s Ella Isaias and Elizabeth Warren were ninth and 10th.
In the boys’ races, there were top 10 finishes for City of Plymouth’s Tom Blackford (5th) in the under-17s, Tavistock’s Oliver Woodmason (7th) in the under-13 category and for his team-mate James Lamb (6th) and City of Plymouth’s Noah Jones (9th) in the under-11s.
The event at Newquay incorporated the Cornwall AA Championships. The next leg at Exeter on December 6 will include the Devon Championships.
Full results of the Newquay race, can be found HERE