JACK DEE produced a storming final leg to guide his team, ‘That’s My Man’, to victory in Thursday night’s annual Tavistock Relays.
It looked like Tavistock AC’s under-16 boys’ quartet of Eldon Young, Arthur Norton, Thomas Hennessey and Luke Scott-Tucker, were going to pull out an eye-catching victory having opted to compete in the senior event rather than the junior competition.
But, despite three of their team featuring in the top five fastest legs, they were overtaken on the final leg by That’s My Man with Dee clocking 4:39 minutes for the 1.1 lap around the Meadows.
Luke Gribbin, Aiden Jacob and Sam Chamberlain-Keen made up the rest of the victorious team, who clocked 19.55 minutes in total for the four-leg relay.
The Tavistock AC ‘Fast Boys’ of Eldon Young, Arthur Norton, Thomas Hennessey and Luke Scott-Tucker finished just four seconds behind in second.
City of Plymouth AC’s ‘Fast Men’ of Joshua Blake, Jacob Robinson, Matthew Bradley and David Weir came third in 20.10 minute.
Blake had got them off to a flyer with a 4:38 minute leg run, which broke the course record and was just one second quicker than Dee ran on the final leg.
Young (5.53), Scott-Tucker (4.55) and Hennessey (4.56) made up the top five individual men’s times.
Tamar Trotters finished fourth in 20.53 minutes, with Plymouth Harriers fifth in 22.06 minutes.
The Plymouth Harriers’ quartet of Gary Booth, David Morris, Raymond Tew and Iain McWass claimed the M40 title, East Cornwall Harriers took the M50 crown and Storm Plymouth’s team of Ian Johnson, Kevin Chiswell, Kevin Fitchett and Michael Hughes were first M60.
Home club Tavistock AC stormed to victory in the women’s event in a course record time of 22.30 minutes.
Their quartet of Jasmine Gray, Nikki Bond, Hannah Smith and Emma Ryder claimed victory by 42 seconds from a strong City of Plymouth AC team made up of Holly Reid, Annabel Arnold, Molly Shorey and Victoria Weir.
Reid set a new women’s course record with an impressive 5.22-minute run, which was just one second ahead of Tavistock’s Gray, with Ryder third quickest in 5.33.
Third women’s team was Plymouth Storm, which was made up of just Lauren Knox and Charlene Matthews, who both ran two legs each. They finished in 23.32 minutes.
Tamar Trotters finished fourth in 26.26 minutes, with City of Plymouth AC’s ‘More Ladies’ fifth in 26.35 minutes.
Plymouth Harriers’ team of Becky Huge, Kellie Boylin, Michelle Cartlidge and Laura Goodspeed were first in the F35 category, while Tamar Trotters won both the F45 and F55 titles.
City of Plymouth AC’s Year 9/10 boys’ team of Finley Eales, William Luscombe, James Luscombe and Hugo Cole, won the junior race in 23.28 minutes.
They edged out Tavistock AC’s ‘Fast + Furious’ 9/10 boys, who took second place in 23.36 minutes. Their team consisted of Jack Anthony, Charlie Cleland, Ben Lentaigne and Rufus Alford.
Third overall and first Year 7/8 in 23.56 minutes were the City of Plymouth’s team of Lucas Sweeney, Alfie Nicholson, Sebastian Travers and Tristan Bigham.
City of Plymouth’s Year 9/10 girls won the junior female race in 25.36 minutes with their team of Elsie Goodspeed, Daisy Elliot, Darcey Bacon and Zoe Bigham.
Second girls’ team and first Year 7/8 were the City of Plymouth quartet of Olivia Walkerdine, Sadie Block, Margot Goodspeed and Evie Welsh.
City of Plymouth did fill the top three junior girls’ team as their Year 5/6 side of Evie Bolt, Evie Thomson, Genevieve Stone and Serena Bigham were third overall and first in their category.
Lucas Sweeney was the fastest boy in the junior races with a 5.19-minute run, while Elsie Goodspeed was quickest girl in 5.34 minutes.
An impressive 107 teams took part in total in the annual event forms part of the Tavistock Carnival.
Full results can be found HERE.
Meanwhile, at the Devon Open Series meeting at Tavistock last Sunday, England junior international hammer thrower Tegan Brown set a new PB with a 59.78m effort to win the under-18 girls’ event.
Not far behind was her team-mate Hazel Stead, who threw 54.72m, while fellow club colleague Isabelle Doney set a new PB of 48.91m to finish third behind the two England internationals.
There was also a PB in the under-14 hammer as Tavistock’s Charlotte Pestridge threw 40.01m to move up to fifth in the UK rankings.
Tegan Brown, Hazel Stead and Pestridge also won other throwing events on Sunday. Brown won the under-18 shot with 10.52m, Stead took victory in the under-18 discus with 29.58m and Prestridge won the under-14 discus with 22.41m.
Tavistock’s George Brown triumphed in the under-18 boys’ shot and discus, while club colleague Evie Palmer took victory in the under-20 javelin.
City of Plymouth’s Brendan Schmidt won the under-16 boys’ javelin with 41.78m.
On the track, Plymouth’s Lexi Hollister set a new PB of 32.31 seconds to win the under-14 200m girls’ hurdles. She also won the 75m hurdles in 13.22 seconds.
Nicolas Maczugowski, back home from university in Coventry, won the men’s 200m in 22.78 seconds, while there was a 100m and 200m double for City of Plymouth’s Poppy Babb in the under-14 girls’ events with times of 13.72 seconds and 28.40 seconds, respectively.
Full results can be found HERE.