YES, YES…IT’S ABOUT DISTANCE RUNNING BUT IT IS A THOUGHT-PROVOKING STORY WITH SOME GOOD POINTS MADE BY SEBASTIAN COE ON THE SPORT AS A WHOLE. kk
by Luke Phillips
EDINBURGH, March 29, 2008 (AFP) - The world cross-country championships take place here on Sunday but its lack of global appeal means that you would be hard pushed to find a non-African runner pushing for a top-20 finish.
The decline of European middle- and long-distance runners, argues Sebastian Coe, the 1980 and 1984 Olympic 1500 metres champion and now the London 2012 Olympics chief, is directly linked to a disinterest in cross-country running.
The last non-African-born runner to make the podium at a world cross event was Benita Johnson of Australia with a gold medal in 2004.
Since then, there have been a raft of mainly east African medallists who have also tellingly excelled in world outdoor and Olympic events, such as defending women’s champion Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia and Kenenisa Bekele, the multi-medal winning six-time world men’s cross champion.
``It is a coaching issue,’’ Coe said, adding that cross-country had been a standard part of preparation he and the other trio of headline British runners in the 1980s - Steve Ovett, Peter Elliot, Steve Cram - underwent.
``But nowadays you rarely find a correlation (among coaches) between cross-country and the track.
``Until we revive cross-country as a serious part of the conditioning process then European distance running will continue to be as bad as it is.
``People have to realise that cross-country can be a large part of training and can lead to a good summer on the track.’’
International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) president Lamine Diack lamented the fact that major European countries such as France and Germany had not even entered teams for Sunday’s event.
``The world cross-country championships is always being won by African runners. In the past it was always won by Europeans,’’ said Diack.
``It’s now up to European nations to make the effort to enter teams.
``It is shameful that a country of 90 million people like Germany has not entered a team. This situation will not be solved at a IAAF committee meeting but at country level.’’
Scottish runner Liz McColgan downplayed the fact that African runners had dominated medal placings over the last four years, saying it was more a matter of personal mindsets.
``I do believe we can beat the Africans,’’ said McColgan, who won an Olympic silver in 1988 and the world title over 10,000m in 1991.
``It comes down to the specific athlete having the drive and determination to get out there and train hard.
``The Africans train hard. There’s no wonderful way to be a winner. It just comes down to hard work and the belief you can do it.’’
Sonia O’Sullivan, an Olympic silver medallist and twice world cross-country champion with Ireland but now team manager with Australia, pinpointed the African training style as the possible downfall of European rivals.
``The group training method is used a lot in Africa. The group effort is very useful and you need that because if you’re out there running by yourself, it’s not easy.’’
Speaking of Britain ahead of London hosting the 2012 Olympics, Coe said he expected British athletes to follow the example of Spanish counterparts who went from winning one gold in the 1988 Seoul Games to 13 when the Olympics were hosted by Barcelona four years later.
Winning medals, he said, would come from ``hard work, natural talent and very, very good coaching’’.
``It’s the responsibility of the national governing bodies over the next four years to make the most of the elevated funding coming into sports. It’s a great opportunity to regenerate a sport.’’
[b]He added: ``Track and field worldwide is people’s second favourite sport.
You have to start converting people,'' he said. You need marketing and community-based activities, not just on the day of the event but in the lead up.
``To regenerate the sport, you have to start in schools. We’ve lost our way in the last 30 years. Track and field no longer exists in schools.’’ [/b]