Newham and Esses Beagles AC - Situated in the 2012 Olympic borough

VESTING-TIMES: Dave Mitchinson ran well but Beagles were controversially denied their rightful medal.

NEWHAM & ESSEX BEAGLES were left fuming after a highly controversial decision from club officials at the South of England Cross Country Championships cost them first place on Saturday.

The east Londoners seemed to be heading for a comfortable win, before the course judges in Uxbridge revealed that Sam Farah and Rob Cole's times would not be counted as they were wearing the new Beagles tops, while the other runners were wearing older ones.

The Newham club were seven points ahead of Winchester, but due to the duo's exclusion the south coast side claimed victory, leaving Bob Smith's side to pick up second place.

"It has certainly left a sour taste in my mouth and I have had to bite my tongue," said an agitated Smith.

"It was petty and there was no intended deception on our part, but I do accept some responsibility.

"The judge said that if I had spoken to him before he would have shown some discrepancy, but I don't know the difference, why doesn't he show some now?

"I had to tell the athletes and they were furious and upset with the decision.

"They feel a sense of injustice and it is a very unfortunate incident."

Beagles fielded an under-strength side with star athletes such as Keith Gerrard, Moumin Geele and Mo Farah missing and to finish second was still a fine effort in a field of 672 athletes.

Kevin Skinner was the first Newham athlete home over the nine-mile course in 11th (53.14) with Dave Mitchinson not too far behind in 18th (54.23), Kairn Stone 22nd in (54.54) and Scott Sterling in 31st (55.26).

Sam Farah (55.33) in 34th and Rob Cole (55.46) would have completed the scoring six, but their exclusion meant 57th place Stuart Major (57.21) and Andy Barber in 62nd (57.29) brought in valuable points. Ben Hellmers came in 1:04.50 to finish 225th.

"I was really happy because we were down to the bare bones," Smith smiled.

"We had a lot of runners missing and it was a really good performance from the team to do as well as well as we did.

"Kevin Skinner was excellent and Dave Mitchinson put in a much-improved performance. Scott Sterling ran superbly and Sam Farah put in a huge amount of effort.

"I was really pleased. I was sure we could medal before-hand and considering what happened, to finish second is remarkable.

- Article by Matt Diner, Newham Recorder