The Death of XC
Globally cross country running has seen a gradual decline in popularity. From its heyday in the 1980’s and 90’s when the European circuit saw the likes of John Ngugi and Paul Tergat going head to head on tough, muddy courses, through the attempt by the IAAF to bring it back to life with the addition of a short (4km) option at the World Championships. And now to the present period where World Cross is a bi-annual event and poorly supported by the top athletes. Today, cross country barely rates a mention in the media beyond the IAAF website.
Why has this come about? Well, there are a few reasons, and we’ll focus on the domestic front. Firstly, the international calendar means the ‘summer’ season of athletics now extends from the northern hemisphere spring with the US circuit, through the European summer and into early autumn. This means that on the domestic front, the top distance runners are busy racing track overseas during the Australian winter season. There’s nothing we can do about this. It’s a reality of being an elite athlete.
Another reason for the decline in domestic cross country running is the road racing circuit. Why run your state cross championships when you can do a road race and pickup some prize money? Better still, who wants to run on a slow, grass and mud circuit when a fast 10km road race is probably a lot more beneficial for an aspiring 5,000/10,000m track athlete. It’s a case of reward for your effort and specificity. One of these elements can be addressed, and that’s incentivising participation in state and national titles. Prizes of some form would go a long way to getting a few more of the top athletes attending. At a national level, the only incentive to run the Australian champs is to win a title, because competing in them won’t get you any cash, nor help your case for world cross selection as there’s a separate trial six months later. What’s really ridiculous is that small, home grown operations that organise community events and fun runs are more capable of finding sponsors for their events than the state and national athletics associations are!
The tyranny of travel is also a worthy consideration as to why cross country has gone out of favour. People are less likely to travel a couple of hours to do a race when there’s probably a fun run 20 minutes drive away. For example, in the case of the NSW state long course cross country, who wants to drive for several hours to attend a race in Nowra on a ridiculously tough course, that’s suited primarily to marathon guys? Athletics Australia have added to the slow death of cross country in a similar manner, by hosting the national titles in 2013 and 2014 in places that are too far removed from major centres. It’s not only time inhibitive, but expensive to attend.
The key to breathing life into cross country is pretty simple. Put people who actually care about the sport and are strategic thinkers into organisational roles. It doesn’t take too much brainpower to realise that you need to motivate runners to attend races. You also need to make it as easy and pleasant as possible to participate. Hold races in locations that are accessible. Run on courses that are challenging yet enjoyable. Promote the events as being ‘fun runs’ as well as titles, therefore attracting a broader range of runners. Reward the top athletes for participation. Decent management would see quality sponsorship, which in turn should see prizes for the winners. It’s these basics of sports management and marketing that would revive this once popular winter staple and in the big picture, probably go a long way to improving the track racing scene also.