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Home , Alain Mimoun, Cross country running, Derartu Tulu, Don Lash, Frank Sando, Frank Shorter

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© by IAAF The Complete History 32:1/2; 163-167, 2017 of Cross-Country from the Nineteenth Century to the Present Day by Andrew Boyd Hutchinson

New York: Carrel Books, 2018, 294, pp., ISBN: 978-1-63144-076-2 (print), 978-1-63144-077-9 (Ebook)

hrough the 1980s, cross country run- ning was a fixed part of every serious T distance runner’s winter preparation and a place among the first three of the world cross country championships was sure to bring an athlete great prestige. The main reason for this was that many considered the champion- ships to be the most difficult race to win, even more difficult than an Olympic title. At major track events, the distance runners are sepa- rated into different races, i.e. 5000m, 10,000m, 3000m and , but in the absence of the short course races, introduced only in 1998, the cross country championships brought together all the world’s top runners in just one race. Thus, the competition was quite fierce.

It’s no wonder, then, that numerous world cross country champions have won major championship medals or set world records and that several have gone on to Olympic gold: (marathon, 1956), Gaston Roel- (from 1903 until 1972) and in the early years of ants (steeplechase, 1964), Mohammed Gam- the IAAF World Cross Country Championships moudi (5000, 1968), (marathon, (since 1973). These includes flat grass surfac- 1984), (5000m, 1988), es, which is usual today, as well as extensive (10,000m, 1992), Deratu Tulu (10,000, 1992 stretches of muddy ground, sometimes gravel and 2000), (10,000m, 2004 road, hilly passages and even obstacles, such and 2008) and (10,000, 2008 as fences, tree trunks and bales of straw. and 2012, and 5,000 2008). In the 1990s cross country lost ground Another reason for the high esteem of cross against other running disciplines due to its per- country in the past was the difficulty of the ception as a relic of the era of non-commercial courses which during the period of the Inter- amateur athletics. As the big city , national Cross Country Championships (ICC) which take place in the traditional cross coun-

New Studies in Athletics · no. 1/2.2017 163 The Complete History of Cross-Country Running from the Nineteenth Century to the Present Day try season - i.e. in autumn and early spring mid-1800s in is fascinating. This book - have diverted attention away from cross details the growth and development of cross country, has become much more country as well as the people, teams, places, financially attractive and events that shaped the as the de- cades went by.” Perhaps another reason for the loss of pub- lic interest, at least in , has been the In the first chapter, Hutchinson points out dominance of African runners. While in the that “the first recorded evidence of cross coun- 1960s and 1970s European runners took most try running as a sport appeared at the dawn of international titles, since 1981 the senior men’s the Victorian Age. In the northwest Midlands of team race in both the short and long races at England, rolling fields, and wet, marshy grass- the World Cross Country Championships has land cultured a schoolboy’s game that would been won every year by or . transform from a rebellious, spirited undertak- On the women’s side, only one non-African ing into one of the world’s most accessible nation, , has won the long team race pastimes.” At the Shrewsbury School as early since 1991. Since 1980, African born runners, as 1819 the lads took up a chase called “Hare in some cases competing for European coun- and Hounds”. These informal pursuits grew tries, have won 23 of 39 senior women’s long- into more organised events and running clubs course individual championships and 35 on formed. Oxford University introduced its first the men’s side. interschool cross country race in 1850.

In recent years attempts have been made In the , the first amateur cross to revive interest in cross-country running. One country championships was held in 1883 effort was the IAAF’s Global Seminar on Cross when nineteen runners started a 4.25-mile Country Running, which took place in Bel- race in Mott Haven, . A thousand grade on December 9, 2013, the day after the spectators were watching as sixteen men fin- 2013 SPAR European Cross Country Cham- ished with one T. F. Delaney winning in a time pionships. of 26:30 minutes.

In such an environment, the publication From the mid-nineteenth to the turn of the of The Complete History of Cross-Country twentieth century the sport grew in , Running from the Nineteenth Century to Scotland, , and New Zealand. the Present Day by Andrew Boyd Hutchin- In the United States, fourteen running clubs son could also be regarded as a step towards established the Amateur Athletic Association. drawing more attention to cross country run- The first intercollegiate competition took place ning. Hutchinson is a cross country coach, a between the Universities of Pennsylvania and high-school history teacher, and an avid run- Cornell. By the end of the 1890s, cross country ner himself. His disappointment of the lack of running had also become popular among high a history book dealing with cross country led school runners. him to trace the growth of the sport, decade by decade, from its emergence in the early nine- The International Cross Country Union teenth century to the present. (ICCU) staged the International Cross Country Championships, the first annual international The book opens with a foreword by Craig championships for the sport in 1903. The dis- Virgin, winner of the 1980 and 1981 IAAF World tance was eight miles and the winner was the Cross Country titles. Virgin calls Hutchinson’s English runner, Alfred Shrubb. Although it be- book “an incredible compilation of sport- gan life as a contest between the four Home specific history. The fact that he traces cross Nations of the , the event be- country back to its infant days in the early to came increasingly international starting with

164 New Studies in Athletics · no. 1/2.2017 The Complete History of Cross-Country Running from the Nineteenth Century to the Present Day the admittance of the first non-UK country in career, Illustrated called Lash “the first 1907 (), the addition of several other Great American distance runner” and “possi- continental European countries in the 1920s, bly the best US cross-country runner ever.” and the introduction of Tunisia as the first African nation in 1958. The Championships Before World War II, the leading Americans featured only a senior men’s race until 1961, were and Bob Black. Wilt captured at which point an under-21s event was intro- one NCAA, one Big Ten and three national duced. After some years as an unsanctioned cross titles. Black was a nationals winner competition, a women’s race was officially twice. staged for the first time in 1967. Other famous world-class cross-country Back in the USA, the inaugural Dipsea trail runners from the era of the ICC Championships race in California in 1904 captured the public’s dealt with in more or less detail in Hutchinson’s imagination as no other footrace had done be- book are: fore as all major San Francisco newspapers • (England), the first four-time gave it feature coverage. The race took place winner of the International Cross Country over a “suggested” but not mandatory course. Championships (between 1933, 1934, Slower runners were granted a head start. On 1935, and 1939); the east coast, the first race at what would • Alain Mimoun (France, International become the Mecca of venues, Van Cortlandt Cross Country Champion in 1949, 1954, Park, the 1912 New York state high school and 1956); championship was staged with two New York • (England, International City policemen mounted on horses leading the Cross Country Champion in 1955, 1957, runners around the course. and 1956); • (, International That year, the introduced Cross Country Champion in 1967, its first cross country race. Hannes Kolehm- 1969, 1972); ainen (FIN) was the gold medallist over twelve • Dave (England, International kilometres. In a “stellar showdown” he de- Cross Country Champion in 1971). feated the French runner , who had won his two International Cross Country titles As might be expected, Hutchinson cov- in succession in 1911 and 1912. The team gold ers the history of in his medal was won by . own country in some detail. In the 1970s, the sport became extremely popular in the Unit- Cross country was contested as a team ed States, one catalyst being the success of and individual event also at the 1920 and 1924 but there were contributions Summer Olympics. , led by Paavo Nur- from visiting university students like John Nge- mi, captured the gold in 1920 and 1924. Dur- no (KEN), (GBR) as well as the 1972 ing the 1924 race in the heat wave, only Olympic marathon champion . 15 of the 38 competitors reached the finish. Spectators were shocked by the attrition rate In 1982, surprised every one by and Olympic officials decided to remove cross beating a world-class field of more than 500 country running from future Olympic Games. runners to win the US national championship. This title was the first of eight consecutive wins In the early 1930s, American , who by Porter, who was one of the very rare run- because of his hard training and ability to run ners specialising in cross-country but other- fast in multiple events on the track was called wise less known. On the European scene, a “The Iron Man from ”, won seven con- comparable runner was the Ukrainian Serhiy secutive national cross country titles. After his Lebid, who won the European Cross Country

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Championships on nine occasions but was • Khalid Skah (, IAAF World much less successful on the track. Cross Country Champion in 1990 and 1991); At the 1971 ICCU Congress, members de- • (Kenya, IAAF World Cross cided to transfer organisation of the Interna- Country Champion in 1995, 1996, tional Cross Country Championships to the 1997, 1998, and 1999); International Amateur Athletics Federation • (Belgium, IAAF (IAAF), a move that was finalised after the 1972 World Cross Country Champion in ICC Championships and led to the first IAAF 2000 and 2001); World Cross Country Championships in 1973. • Kenenisa Bekele (Ethiopia, winner of both the short and long course World Traditionally, the World Cross Country Cross Country Championships titles Championships consisted of four races: one from 2002 through 2006, a feat no each for men (12 km) and women (8 km) and other runner was able to accomplish). one each for junior men (8 km) and for junior women (6 km). Scoring was done for individu- Between 1967 (when the women's race als and for national teams. In the team com- became an official part of the champion- petition, the finishing positions of the top six ships) and 1971, American Doris Brown won scorers from a team of up to nine are summed five consecutive individual titles. Apart from for the men and women, respectively, and the Brown, other great women cross-country run- lowest wins. For the junior races, the top ners whose careers are detailed by Hutchin- three from a team of up to four are scored. son are: Francie Larrieu (USA), (USA), (USA), (NOR), In 1975, the New Zealand men and United (USA), who won three consecu- States women won, marking the first victories tive IAAF international and nine national titles), by non-European countries. In 1981, an African (USA), (GBR), nation (Ethiopia) won the men’s race for the (ETH), (ETH), Sonia first time. Since then, Ethiopia or Kenya have O’Sullivan (IRL) and (USA). captured every men’s title. At the end of each chapter, there is a sec- The year 1998 saw the introduction of two tion entitled “Event Spotlight”. Here, Hutchin- new events, a short race for men and a short son deals with seventeen memorable competi- race for women. The last time these 4 km rac- tions in greater detail, such as es were held was 2006, and there are no pub- • The First International Cross-Country lic plans to bring them back. Meeting − Cross des Nations (March 20, 1898); From the era of the IAAF World Cross Coun- • The Inugural Holding of the Interna- try Championships, the following world-class tional Cross-Country Championship cross-country runners are given separate (March 28, 1903); chapters by Hutchinson: • Zátopek, Kuts, and Chromik in the • Carlos Lopes (Portugal, IAAF World Cross de L’Humanité (March 19, 1954); Cross Country Champion in 1976, • Lindgren, Prefontaine and the First 1984, and 1985); Pac-8 Cross Country Championship • (USA, IAAF World Cross (November 14, 1969); Country Champion in 1980 and 1981); • Jennings, McKiernan, and Dias at • John Ngugi (Kenya, IAAF World Cross World Cross (, 1992); or Country Champion in 1986, 1987, • The Miracle in the Mud – the United 1988, 1989, and 1992); States and Kenya at World Cross (March 24, 2013).

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In three segments entitled “Cultural Spot- troduce the event to the Olympic Games have light”, Hutchinson investigates larger issues. been discussed by IAAF officials, there is a In "The Olympic Movement", he describes the good deal of uncertainty about whether that history of the modern Olympic Games and will come to pass. their only distant connection with cross coun- try running. In “Women In Cross County Run- As a summary, it can be said that Craig Vir- ning” he tells the readers that by 1918 France gin is right in his praise of Hutchinson's book in presented the first national women’s event the foreword. In accordance with its title, this with a race over 2,400 meters. That country book can indeed be called a comprehensive also was home to the first international event, review of cross country running as it chroni- which took place in 1931. In “Kit, Equipment cles every part of its background in almost and Technology,” he describes how attire, 300 pages. Besides being highly informative, footwear, timing and media interest and pre- the book is also easy and entertaining to read, sentation contributed to the sport’s progress. not least because of the “Event Spotlight” and “Did You Know?” boxes, which break up the In so-called “Did You Know?” boxes inter- presentation of historical facts. spersed throughout the text, interesting facts and anecdotes of the international cross-coun- In some passages Hutchinson’s style of try scene are told. One of these anecdotes, writing has an almost lyrical quality. For ex- for example, is the story of how the Ethiopian ample, on page 106, Steve Prefontaine is de- team travelled to the 1995 World cross race in scribed as “shining bright like the sun. Only the United Kingdom. “Visa and financial prob- the brave had the courage to cast more than lems saw the Ethiopians lose access to their two or three glances at the sensational fresh- passports for security reasons and they were man.” By describing an athlete in such a man- forced to pack several to a room in an ner, Hutchinson also shows his deep respect hotel on Thursday night. Then, they pooled and love for the sport. His enthusiasm has an what they had to pay the bill, but could afford infectious effect on the reader, who closes the no food. Having been in transit since Wednes- book not only with the feeling of having had a day, the team finally arrived in on Fri- good read but also with the satisfaction that a day. No flights were available to Newcastle, gap has been filled in the literature of athletics so they made the seven-hour, 300-mile trip history. by public bus, arriving at midnight, less than twelve hours before the first race.” Reviewed by Jürgen Schiffer In the concluding chapter of the book, Hutchinson sums up where the sport is today, and where he believes it is headed. He holds that although cross country running is still Andrew Boyd Hutchinson: very popular among youth runners, particu- larly in the USA, there is an obvious decline in The Complete History of Cross-Country Running the number of countries sending teams to the from the Nineteenth Century IAAF championships. The change from the an- to the Present Day nual to the bi-annual scheduling, the selection New York: of some remote venues for the event, and the Carrel Books, 2018,294, pp., domination of African athletes have also not ISBN: 978-1-63144-076-2 (print), contributed to the popularity of cross-coun- 978-1-63144-077-9 (Ebook), try running. In addition, there is the absence £ 35.99 of cross-country from the Olympic Games schedule. Although possibilities of how to rein-

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