Just watched the webcast of the World XC champs. Taking into account what I remember about the last one in China, the thought occurred to me that these World XC championship courses are too easy. Cross Country literally means running across the countryside and the courses should reflect such challenges. These courses are like running through city parks or golf courses. When I was in high school many of our courses were run through actual woods. The "hill" in this course took about four strides from top to bottom, they didn't even have to break stride for the one foot high logs, and the footing is level and smooth. My recommendations would be as follows. There should be more hills, and they should be steeper and longer. There should be more turns, and the turns should be sharper, and better yet, turns on the steeper hills. The obstacles should be more difficult. The logs should be the same height as the steeples in the steeple chase, and there should be chasms that you have to jump over. The footing should be unstable and include rocks and roots. Additionally, the competitors should not be able to inspect the course prior to the race. Athletes should have to do on the fly decision making and the course should provide choices such as take the straightest line and deal with an obstacle or take a longer route to avoid it. As is, these modern day "cross country" courses emphasize the same skills as running on a track. Cross country courses should test not just aerobic capacity, but also agility, coordination, and decision-making.