Is Cross Country running dying? An unusual question perhaps on the weekend when the European Cross Country Championships came to Dublin with hundreds of participants and thousands of spectators. On the face of it this branch of the sport would appear to be thriving but, if you'll excuse the pun, what is the reality at grass roots level? In the current season numbers participating have been down at virtually every venue, most recently at Ballyclare on Malcolm Cup day and on Saturday at Dromore which used to be among the most popular of venues. There were many of the old faces of course in the Veterans (Masters) races - in fact there are too many old ones and not enough young ones. It was interesting to hear running greats like Sonia O'Sullivan and Jerry Kiernan , as they discussed possible medal winners, extol the benefits of running cross country in the Winter as a strength builder for the track and road racing season – yet few of our juniors appear to want to get their feet dirty or wet.
Is running in decline? A week ago the Seeley Cup reached its capacity entry figure of 800 ten days before the race, so there is no waning of interest there – in fact membership of most athletic clubs is significantly up and rising.
Are there too many races? On Saturday as well as the distraction of the Dublin showpiece, which no doubt attracted many runners as spectators, there were 2 other races "locally", one a trail race in Kilbroney and the other a 10K in Loughgall – to be honest neither event would have significantly impacted on the numbers at Dromore but nevertheless they were in competition for the available runners. So perhaps it is the cross country discipline itself?
The Under 12 Boys and Girls races had 8 runners each, the Under 14s had 4 Girls and 8 Boys while the Under 16s had 1 Girl and 7 Boys – a total of 36. In the Ladies and Masters (over 35s) races a total of 50 runners took part, while in the Open Men's race, the feature race of the day, only 8 athletes went to post. There has been a steady falling off in numbers at Dromore in recent years but they are not on their own this year and as these figures indicate, the decline is worrying. Cross Country running was once the bread and butter of the sport but it would appear that the current generation have too much cake to bother with the loaf.
East Down did field runners in most of the races, albeit far too few in proportion to their membership, with significant brave performances in the mud. Ellen Erskine ran the race of her life to claim a magnificent 3rd place in the Under 12 race, with Amy Godfrey and Aoife Cochrane battling each other to the line and Blaithnaid Evans showing determination and strength of mind to complete in spite of injury – attributes which every successful runner has to develop and train as much as their physical fitness.
Patrick Sheridan dominated the under 14 Boys race from the off and came home a comfortable winner with Paddy Erskine taking a respectable 5th place. In the Under 16 Boys event Arthur Morgan and David Devenney had the dubious pleasure of being in the first race to test the going across the infamous hill and both came through with flying colours, finishing in 4th and 6th places respectively.
In the Masters/Ladies race Newcastle AC were well represented with Eamon McCrickard taking overall 3rd place, Jim Erskine 11th and John McCambridge 13th . Anne Sandford was 5th overall lady and it was great to see Wendy Fleming from the promoting club back in action again. I placed 17th, two minutes down on last year's time – but was the course longer?
In a disappointingly low turnout in the Open 5 Mile race East Down's Brendan Teer hit the front from the beginning and never looked back as he strode to a comfortable but morale boosting win.
The next big event in the sights of the local runners is the Christmas Cracker in Castlewellan on 28 December and if the navigational skills of East Down's contingent on last Sunday's practice run on the course are anything to go by they would be well advised to invest in some form of Satnav device before then – but I suppose that's what Santa's for.
Happy Christmas to all runners and 2 legged animals everywhere.
Joe Quinn
14 December 2009
