59 guys ran slower than the winning woman (only 54 ran faster). This includes 3 Canadians, 2 Brits, 2 NZ… Should they not be allowed to represent their country in the future? There has to be some type of consequence.
Quite surprised that the GB team didn’t bring in any of SIRPOC, Jake Barraclough, Ben Felton (presuming none of them ruled themselves out on moral grounds from going to the States). Think with 2 of those 3 they’d have an outside shout at the podium.
Outside? Outside? You probably mean like outside of the Apalachee Regional Park where the race was held. Right??
They are all nice, talented, and watchable guys on YouTube, but let's be real here; none of these guys individually or combined would have changed the results.
Was I the only one that felt the streaming coverage was amateur at best? No lead cart, shaky drone footage. I also felt the race had no energy (granted I was not there in person). Previous world XC’s (specifically the one in Scotland back in 2008) had so much energy in the event. Even today it looked bar bones with the amount of athletes even running. There are high school races that I coach at with more people in attendance. The whole event unfortunately looked like it flopped. I hate to say it, but if this is the future of World XC I think its days are numbered. The “obstacles” were super corny.
Virgin's 1980 win was one of the best historical editions imho; Nick Rose ran like a maniac, way out in the lead, and died a thousand deaths in the last kilometer. Note all the spectators basically right on the course; a complete circus but part of the appeal back in the day.
It does seem like Nico has not been the same since Wolfe and Strand joined Mike Smith’s group. Could be coincidence but makes me wonder if there is an obligation to give best effort to Nike athletes.
I don’t think Nico is changing anything. I bet he becomes a Nike athlete when his contract with Adidas is up in order to stay with Smith. I bet Whitney Morgan will do the same to stay with Coach Taylor. They both seem dedicated to their coaches. It seems like this might hurt their negotiation efforts, though, if Nike already knows how much they love their coach and that relationship depends on them signing with Nike. How does this not take power away from the athletes. I hope that isn’t the case.
I thought Nico would be up there close to Blanks today. Maybe he is working through something.
Nico bought a house in Flagstaff so if he leaves Adidas his options are Nike or Hoka NAZ Elite. could you see Nico in Hokas?
I think he will stay in Mike Smith’s group and sign with Nike. That is just my opinion.
Am I the only one embarrassed by this cheesy course? A cardboard house, an astroturf ramp, a kiddie pool, a sandbox, lincoln-log hurdles. It's like a miniature golf course you'd find next door to the Motel 6 in a low-budget tourist town.
Agreed & Correct- I’ll state this once again; this addition was fake, anemic and g*y.
Quite surprised that the GB team didn’t bring in any of SIRPOC, Jake Barraclough, Ben Felton (presuming none of them ruled themselves out on moral grounds from going to the States). Think with 2 of those 3 they’d have an outside shout at the podium.
Outside? Outside? You probably mean like outside of the Apalachee Regional Park where the race was held. Right??
They are all nice, talented, and watchable guys on YouTube, but let's be real here; none of these guys individually or combined would have changed the results.
Am I the only one embarrassed by this cheesy course? A cardboard house, an astroturf ramp, a kiddie pool, a sandbox, lincoln-log hurdles. It's like a miniature golf course you'd find next door to the Motel 6 in a low-budget tourist town.
The Mar a lago parvenus love it. Did you want effeminate Art Deco? Art Dotard rules now. And the water pit was actually florida orange juice dyed blue. Put some of that in your margarita and sip it or zip it.
Sorry mate, not true. A skid steer could have easily created a smooth go around for cart. They just chose not to.
Absolutely. All they'd have to do is create an alternate path for the brief areas where there's an obstacle that the vehicle can't navigate. Surely if you have the capability to host an event like this, you have the ability to hire a local to do a little bit of temporary Landscaping...
The alternative path could have been a narrow path wide enough to accommodate a mountain bike or ebike. Watch coverage of Ultra Trail Mt Blanc where they get incredible shots from a lone bike rider or runner on trails much rougher than this manicured course in the US.
Does he have a green card? He was at an event in San Antonio (Anta exposition) in December as well. I know Kerr has one and there's some special program for Olympic medalists - EB1 visa
Was I the only one that felt the streaming coverage was amateur at best? No lead cart, shaky drone footage. I also felt the race had no energy (granted I was not there in person). Previous world XC’s (specifically the one in Scotland back in 2008) had so much energy in the event. Even today it looked bar bones with the amount of athletes even running. There are high school races that I coach at with more people in attendance. The whole event unfortunately looked like it flopped. I hate to say it, but if this is the future of World XC I think its days are numbered. The “obstacles” were super corny.
For a World Championship competition attendance was poor. There is relatively very low interest in Athletics in the USA.
High School races get so many spectators because the participants are still non-adult children still under the care of their parents. Many of those parents attend their kid's races, sometimes along with a few family friends and relatives, because that is what parents do.
International sporting events in Europe draw more interest and spectators due to the close proximity of numerous other countries. Tallahassee FL is a relatively much longer distance away from any other country.
It is likely that the current attitude, policies and practices of the US President kept many international fans away. Insulting many nations and their citizens. Making remarks that foreigners (and foreign products) are not welcome in the USA.
Those attitudes, policies and practices may have also kept some other nations from sending teams/athletes to this event. And for some of athletes were sent entry into the USA was denied.
Am I the only one embarrassed by this cheesy course? A cardboard house, an astroturf ramp, a kiddie pool, a sandbox, lincoln-log hurdles. It's like a miniature golf course you'd find next door to the Motel 6 in a low-budget tourist town.
Agreed & Correct- I’ll state this once again; this addition was fake, anemic and g*y.
You know why I didn't like it? It just wasn't necessary!
I thought the terrain and landscape was pretty cool in it's own right. Was it muddy and treacherous like a classic northern Euro winter cross course? No. But these championships were not in northern Europe - they were in the US where the courses are flatter, harder and faster and that's fine. Putting a damn 40 feet long paddling pool out there? Dumping a foot of soft dirt on a random spot? Building a hill of scaffolding? Just all unnecessary.
But thats personal preference. Maybe cheesy is what they were going for. The biggest misstep for me was how they did the start/finish. Because instead of the start being an extra addition to the loop, they for some reason made the finish. Why oh why did they do this.
So instead of the start eventually funneling down to the start/finish so the athletes would cross it every time they finished a lap and have fans nice and close on both sides, they did the freaking opposite. So you had spectators on the right hand side of course as they came through for laps, but then at the finish those fans were like a football field away from the finish line. It made the finish line look empty and cheap and they couldn't fit enough people in there so if you did get into that little triangle on the left you might have ended up 25 people deep and unable to actually see it. They literally did it the wrong way around and it presented very poorly. So the gimmicks were forgivable, the finish line situation just wasn't.
This post was edited 11 seconds after it was posted.
For a World Championship competition attendance was poor. There is relatively very low interest in Athletics in the USA.
High School races get so many spectators because the participants are still non-adult children still under the care of their parents. Many of those parents attend their kid's races, sometimes along with a few family friends and relatives, because that is what parents do.
International sporting events in Europe draw more interest and spectators due to the close proximity of numerous other countries. Tallahassee FL is a relatively much longer distance away from any other country.
It is likely that the current attitude, policies and practices of the US President kept many international fans away. Insulting many nations and their citizens. Making remarks that foreigners (and foreign products) are not welcome in the USA.
Those attitudes, policies and practices may have also kept some other nations from sending teams/athletes to this event. And for some of athletes were sent entry into the USA was denied.
I had heard from someone there that there were actually quite a lot of people there, they just couldn't get people into the right spots that presented well on the broadcast - so it looked like there were even less people there than there was.
But I agree with you here - I know WA wants to continue to keep their world championship venues diverse (track, cross, road) etc, but I'm not sure it works here in the US. The running community here is great and passionate, but there is simply no crossover to fringe fans or people that "just go out and watch the world XC champs". Just too much choice here and it keeps sports fans largely pigeon-holed. The last two world champs the US have had were Eugene and here - just not really destinations for anyone outside those passionate fans unfortunately.
A shout out to D2 (Western Colorado) runner 20 year-old Oliver Diaz from Venezuela for placing 64th in the senior men's race today. He placed 18th at the D2 XC Champs in November. Pretty good run for a young guy in that field.