Beagles finished third in team standings in Claybury

Tony Shiret was pleased with Newham & Essex Beagles’ third-place finish in the Division Two team standings at the first race of this year’s Start Fitness Metropolitan Cross-Country League season.

In the opening event in Claybury, Beagles were only beaten by London City and London Heathside ‘B’ after taking 878 points.

Eoin Pierce (26 minutes and 30 seconds), Luke Conway (27.00), Christian von Eitzen (27.53), Alex Cameron (28.54), Wayne Bell (29.03), Nick Armstrong (29.22) and Victor Nutakor (29.25) helped Beagles to a good points haul.

And Shiret was content with the opening to the new season, particularly owing to testing circumstances in Claybury.

“On balance, I’m pleased with how Saturday went. It was very hot and one of the women in the senior race fainted, so there was a delay of about an hour that led to a couple of our runners dropping out,” he said.

“If we had been able to put a full squad out, we would have won the opening meet.

“Division Two has been a tough division for us to get out of, but we’ve started well and we need to push on.

“It’s important to get a lot of points when you have good availability and hopefully we can make good on our solid start.

Pierce led Newham home in 10th with Conway not far behind in 16th, and Shiret was pleased with their performances.

“Eoin didn’t expect to do as well as he did and he started cautiously because of the heat,” added Shiret.

“He’s been running well in recent weeks and enjoys running when the ground is hard.

“Luke ran well too and it was a great debut from Christian, who showed he’s a good runner. It was a good day in general for us with some good showings.”

In addition to the seniors, Shiret also had praise for two of the club’s younger athletes.

Kevin Jake-Richards was 12th in the under-11 boys’ race in 6.04, while Olivia Tinubu, an under-15 runner, clocked 21.52 in the junior women’s race, leading Shiret to predict a bright future for the pair.

“Kevin ran well and he finished like Usain Bolt. He ran beautifully and could be a real talent, so we expect there is more to come from him,” he added.

“Olivia also ran her race very well too, so there were some pleasing youth results.”