Cornwall AC competitors were greeted by applaing conditions for conditions were absolutely the National Championships so much so that the organisers halted the races after the Under 17 Boys as they tried to change the course, writes Alan Rowling.

Mud was over ankle deep everywhere and the big hill was so steep that runners in the top ten of the Under17 race were seen walking at the top.

Cornwall AC’s big hope, Conor Robinson, never got near the front at the start and that was his race over. It was impossible to move through in the conditions and he soon resigned himself to plodding through to the end. He eventually finished 37th in a time of 25 minutes 25 seconds, some two minutes behind the winner and second placed Harvey Dixon, who Conor beat at the recent South of England Championships.

However, good runs from Callum Jones in 64th (26.10) and Andrew Worden, just 40 seconds further back in 95th, were well backed up by Jordan Roberts who finished 166th in a time of 28.15. This was good enough to close the team in seventh place.

Team manager and club coach Pete Meredith, said: “After the race, the lads eventually found a pond to wash off the worst of the mud and make their frozen way back to the nearest service station for a shower. They say they are really looking forward to the track season now.”

Cornwall Athletic Club’s road success story continued at the recent shambolic Plymouth Hoe 10 mile road race, which incorporated the annual Cornwall versus Devon Challenge. The Duchy’s top road running club romped to victory in both the men’s and Ladies team races, finishing well ahead of the best Devon could offer in an incident packed event.

Cornwall’s Ladies team captain, Emma Stallard, won her race for the second successive year, but not without confronting many hair raising moments, as her eye witness account confirms. “The race started fine, I was in about 19th place at a mile and a half and we went past the turning we usually take and I thought, Oh I'm sure we were meant to turn but maybe this is a late change because of road works? The guys who were running in front of me appeared to know what they were doing. Then a few yards on, some man on a bike was shouting from a side street, ‘you've gone the wrong way, come back’. The front runners either didn't hear or ignored him because he wasn't even a marshal. I hesitated, stopped, turned and ran back up the road to where this biker was pointing and joined the 'usual' route. Now I was in first place overall, so I followed what I believed to be the correct route to the Hoe, with the lead motorbike in front of me, who had re-appeared from somewhere, turned onto the Hoe only to find he had gone again. Completely disappeared. I was running with nobody in front and a handful scattered behind me. It felt like a training run.

“This is where the course changed, so I only had a vague memory from the online coursemap. I looped the Hoe in first place still and was just about to turn right (on memory of the map) when one of the male runners caught me and I asked him if he knew the way and he said ‘yes, straight on, it's the next right’, so I followed him for the next six miles. Thank goodness because I would never have found the route with nobody in front of me and no lead bike.”

Most of the leading men stopped or gave up or got lost or ran nearly a mile further, including Cornwall’s Noel Kindon, who abandoned the race and did a tempo training run with some others instead.

Subsequently the Cornwall v Devon men’s team competition had to be cancelled, disappointing the Cornish runners, who had made the long journey to Plymouth after an early start.

Cornwall gained some consolation in the Ladies’ team race beating the Devon ladies for the second succesive year. The clock at the finish, which was probably the only thing that didn’t stop during the race, credited Emma with a winning time of 59 minutes 47 seconds, although her watch said unofficially 59.18, depriving her of an excellent personal best. County and club teammate Naomi Tier crossed the line in second place, over a minute ahead of Devon’s top runner, third placed Jo Meek (Tavistock AC), with the Duchy’s third scoring runner, Anne Luke (Tamar Trotters) finishing fourth.

In the club team competition, Kathryn Burgess (8th) and Suzy Bosustow (9th) were both pleased with their results and delighted to finish in the top ten. Jenny Almey (16th) Jenny Almey also ran really well, also knocking over a minute off her recent Stormforce 10-mile time.

With Kindon gone walkabout in the salubrious suburbs of Plymouth, Cornwall AC’s winning Men’s squad were led home by Colin Snook (14th), with Justin Thomas (18th), Steve Wherry (31st) and Phil Bolt (39th) completing a strong quartet. Phil was happy with this performance, unlike poor Steve, who covered almost eleven miles in a ten mile race.