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April 01, 2009
Beagles Boys Dust-Up Out In The Middle East
 Newham Recorder's Matt Diner chats to Beagles' cross country stars Keith Gerrard and
Lee Merrien after their return from a gruelling World Cross Country
Championships out in Jordan NEWHAM & ESSEX BEAGLE club duo Keith
Gerrard and Lee Merrien put in decent performances among the best on
the planet at the World Cross Country Championships in Jordan last
weekend.
Merrien finished 91st in a time of 38 minutes and 35 seconds in Amman, while Gerrard came home five places back in 39.03.
Ethiopian Gebre-egziabher Gebremariam won it in an electric time of 35.02.
"It was an unbelievable standard and to finish four minutes behind them is just nuts," admitted a stunned Gerrard.
Merrien always knew it was going to be tough. "Of course it was always
going to be a competitive field. There were only 19 Europeans that
finished the race and we knew the Africans were likely to dominate."
The
12k course was a dusty, energy-sapping terrain, which is a lot
different to the courses found in Britain, a fact which did not help
Gerrard.
"There was just no grass and the course was bone dry and almost like a road race," he said.
"I think it suited the Africans more than us, as it is the kind of surface they would train on, I prefer mud!"
Merrien
added: "It was a very challenging course, and it was one I should have
worn flats instead of spikes and that was maybe an error on my part."
The
British team finished in a respectable 14th out of the 19 teams taking
part, with Kenya taking the title ahead of the Ethiopian squad.- Matt Diner, Newham Recorder
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