My son who is an 8th grader just joined XC this summer and loves it. He's no were near the front of the pack (more like towards the back or last few runners) and he's just fine with that. Over the past few months he's been improving his time and really has fallen in love with running.
I would love to hear anyone's opinion on this incident that took place today at his XC meet. Maybe this is common and an ok thing as I am not that versed in the rules of XC.
As my son was neck and neck with a team mate of his and was about 80 yards from the finish in which there was a curve. My son being on the inside of the turn begins to kick it into a full sprint and his teammate (who is a bit taller an bigger than him) extends his arms and blocks him from passing moving his arms up and down all the way to the finish. Almost like a small child pretending to be an airplane. When my son attempted to pass he would move his arms whatever way he was coming at so he could not make a move. Now keep in mind these two are some of the last runners finishing up and on the same team. (I know, I know I keep hammering that home)
I was a bit baffled??? Is this a part of the XC? #1- Do runners do this to gain an advantage? #2- Is this against any sort of rules #3- Maybe just bad sportsmanship? #4- Is this kid just as big of a jerk as I think he is?
Yes, this is really mother bear venting on a message board but I am a bit curious and yeah, I have my claws out.