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London 2017 pole vault analysis – p38 JEFF HOLMES MARK SHEARMAN

Jason Henderson, editor

IN CELEBRATION OF CROSS COUNTRY WITH the track season behind us and an autumnal feel in the air, our athletics instincts tell us the cross-country season is about to kick off. Mud lovers will hopefully have enjoyed our annual cross-country calendar and spikes reviews in last week’s AW. As regular readers know, it only gets better as the winter unfolds, too, with unrivalled coverage of everything from local leagues to national and international championships. The British Athletics Cross Challenge starts next week in and I’m looking forward to reporting on the English Cross Country Relays in Mansfield in a few weeks’ time. Who knows, I might even dust off my spikes at some stage for a race somewhere. After all, we like to practise what we preach at AW. In this issue of AW we review a new book that chronicles cross country’s considerable history (see Callum Hawkins p34). In it, the author Andrew Hutchinson explores the interview – p28 current health of one of the oldest parts of the sport and highlights some worrying trends. Cover: Chris The fact the world championships is held only once Thompson ACTION every two years is not great, of course. In the popularity winning the 6 BANK OF Bank of stakes, cross country is also being given a run for its Scotland Great money by trendier-looking obstacle races. Scottish Run Chris Thompson beats Callum It’s not all bad, though. Cross country still features on (Jeff Holmes) Hawkins in over the the path to stardom for most top athletes, albeit these half- distance days at the start of their journey rather than the end. The Below: the sport is also being introduced into the Youth Olympics cross-country season is here NEWS next year – a move that promises a potential senior and AW is the 10 Jo Blair suspended for drugs offence Olympics debut one day. place to read For me, cross country remains the purest and most about it (Mark 11 Andy Butchart on coaching switch natural part of the sport as well and its charm is summed Shearman) 12 Commonwealth joy for Birmingham up in a quote in the aforementioned book. 14 Wheelchair racer Sammi Kinghorn I don’t think this column has ever contained 16 Stirling Marathon gets new course any poetry before but this little verse sums

up the beauty of the discipline. MARK SHEARMAN PERFORMANCE “The start, the sprint, 36 Sports science and training news The spikes that flail. 38 World Champs pole vault analysis The biting, frosty air inhale. 40 Teenage runners’ knee Across the plough, 41 Is HMB worth a try? Up hill and down dale, 42 How to make best use of a foam roller The field, the ditch, the paper trail. The end in sight, the last half-mile; PREVIEW the race is lost, but the run’s worth while.” 54 ERRA men’s six-stage and women’s Good luck in the coming season. four-stage road relays

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AW Oct 5 Contents-Comment 4-5.indd 2 02/10/2017 15:34 BOOK REVIEWS

CROSS-COUNTRY HISTORY

From the world championships (above) to local league and schools events, cross country is a big part of the athletics calendar

ROSS-COUNTRY running So while each chapter moves through Craig Virgin, twice world cross-country enthusiasts and athletics fans the history from the early 1800s to the champion at the start of the 1980s, has C with a thirst for history will find a present day, it is broken up with ‘event given the book his seal of approval and new book by Andrew Boyd spotlight’ and ‘did you know?’ boxes and writes a nice preface. In this he explains the Hutchinson to be essential reading. all of it is an easy, entertaining, informative beauty of cross-country but also includes The Complete History of Cross-Country read. his concerns about its current status in Running – from the 19th Century to the The book has a slight US bias, but global athletics. present day is a comprehensive review of the early section on the origins of cross Virgin writes that Seb Coe’s appointment the sport as it chronicles every part of its country focus very much on England and, as IAAF president is good for cross background in 400 pages. specifically, Shrewsbury School in the country, for example, as he explains: “The The only downside is that this mouth- Midlands, which is credited with being the survival of the IAAF World Cross Country watering feast of cross-country history is place where “the first recorded evidence of Championships may hang in the balance not out until the new year. But AW has seen cross-country running as a sport appeared over the next few years.” a preview of the book and can confirm it at the dawn of the Victorian Age” in 1819. He adds: “Cross-country will soon is an immense work of around 400 pages As an example of the style of writing need “friends in high places” if the IAAF that is sure to stand the test of time as in the book, the author writes: “The is to rebrand and reorganise the World a definitive source of history for one of Shrewsbury schoolboys harnessed their Championships in order to survive and athletics’ most traditional disciplines. adolescent adrenaline, answered the thrive into the future.” The author is a keen cross country call of the outdoors, and aligned with Hutchinson agrees and expands in the runner himself and his love of the sport is their comrades to escape the rigour and pages as he says: “Cross-country has a obvious as he has painstakingly logged the discipline of the classroom. These were the rich, international tradition. For more than major events in the history of the sport over seeds that allowed the sport to grow on a 200 years it has thrilled audiences and the past couple of hundred years. global scale.” participants alike, has provided a natural This is not merely a regurgitation of From then on, the book charts the venue for athletes, and now attracts events, though. While the book is big, it is growth of the sport across the United runners of all ages. But some of the also edited well and he has plucked the States and indeed around the world. biggest names in cross-country are most interesting and significant events and Naturally, the impact of athletes from East worried about the difficulties in growing athletes to focus on. African nations is also explored in detail. the sport.

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AW Oct 5 Book Reviews 34-35.indd 34 02/10/2017 07:34 @athleticsweekly MARK SHEARMAN CROSS-COUNTRY HISTORY

JASON HENDERSON REVIEWS AN UPCOMING BOOK THAT PROVIDES A DEFINITIVE n The Complete History of Cross- BACKGROUND TO Country Running – from the 19th CROSS-COUNTRY Century to the Present Day by Andrew Boyd Hutchinson is published by RUNNING Carrel Books for £35.99 hardback and is out in January

“There are multiple reasons why: Related to this, the book briefly explores has seemingly struggled in comparison for lack of enthusiasm from professional the growth of obstacle course racing and popularity. coaches, the biennial structure of the gives an interesting explanation on why Certainly, if cross-country running is world championship, format changes it has managed to secure sponsorship to enjoy a major revival then one of its ranging from race distances to monetary and massive growth in participation great strengths is its history and this book compensation, and dominance by thanks to smart marketing while the more demonstrates that it has it in abundance specific nations.” traditional sport of cross-country running (see Comment, p4).

LIFE THROUGH gardener at Kew, where he started his The very next day, his brother CORRIDORS OF athletics at 17 years old. died of Hodgkinson’s disease aged UNCERTAINTY He was head groundsman at only 19. THE VAST majority of athletics Winchmore Cricket Club, a cricket Like many of us, he has athletics books tend to centre on an athlete’s professional at Edinburgh Academy heroes that he knew, such as Fred life in the sport, rather than their and among other things he taught in Bell, the Welsh mile champion of achievements outside of that, Poland from 1994 to 2005. 1969; Ken Norris, the Olympian; and writes Alastair Aitken. He joined Thames Valley Harriers international Mike Wiggs from his Dave Morgan, 72, not only in 1962 and became a Welsh club. expresses himself with a challenging International runner. He also won This book is unusual but an political stance on things but honours quite a few steeplechases, which interesting read to say the least. the sporting heroes in several sports, included a win in that event in the with little known facts about Motspur popular old Fire Brigade meeting, at n Life through Corridors of Park and Lords Cricket Ground the White City Stadium. Uncertainty by David Morgan, is and his involvement with However, his ‘Life Through steeplechase on the old cinder track available from the author at 14 University. Corridors of Uncertainty’ certainly at Crystal Palace when he put his Beaumont Court, Church Stretton, He was head groundsman at came true on August 26, 1967, when foot down below the water jump and Shropshire SY6 6DT for £9.99 Motspur Park, after being a trainee he looked on course to win a 3000m broke his foot on the clods of earth. plus £3.50 p&p

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