Jonathan Gault- thank you and I hope you enjoyed your time in Bathurst

Lol I've seen a few comments from people dumping on Bathurst but it's fairly representative of any regional Australian town. Whilst I agree there's better locations they could have chosen, I don't think Bathurst performed poorly as a host.

I thought the course looked great. I suppose Bathurst is far afield from Europe, but given that constraint it looks to me like the organizers did a great job.

Give us some actual examples on where it should have been then. I cannot think of one regional town in Australia that wouldn't have faced the exact same constraints as Bathurst.

Port Macquarie

Orange

Coffs Harbour

Ballina

Newcastle

Wollongong

Bendigo

Geelong

Ballarat

Albury

Queanbeyan/Canberra

Noosa

Cairns

Mandurah

Busselton

There's a bunch, without thinking very hard.

Anyway, this thread is a thank you to JG and Letsrun.

Reporting was great

Bathurst is the equivalent of a small rust belt town. There’s virtually nothing to do

“Eyebrow raising” is a good diplomatic description

Yes much props to Gault and it looked to me like the athletes were pretty stoked to see an American outlet there too.

Katoomba has an abandoned hilly golf course. Would have been perfect.

WTF is up with all the ogling of Orange? Speaking of dumps. Dear mother of Gaia, no. Next you’ll be shilling for Lithgow.

Thanks guys. Credit goes to Rojo and Wejo -- they decided to send me because they love XC and want to treat World XC as the big-time event it is in our world. I've had a blast so far in Bathurst (granted, most of my time has been spent at the course) and am looking forward to spending Monday and Tuesday exploring Sydney before flying home Wednesday.

I also think Bathurst did a great job hosting this meet. Yeah, it was a hike to get here from Sydney and there's not a ton going on in the town apart from Mount Panorama. But I really liked the course, and all the volunteers could not be nicer. You could tell the Aussies were really excited to be hosting something for once and I think they should be proud of the event they staged. Crowds were good and created a good atmosphere for the meet.

As for why Bathurst? Well, during the press conference before the meet, the organizers mentioned that by staging it here, they had more freedom over course design and fewer restrictions. In a major city, it would have been tougher to find/reserve a venue whereas they pretty much had free reign to do what they wanted to the course in Bathurst (though they were also forced to cover up multiple asphalt sections, hence the dirt ridges in the finishing straight and the Bondi Beach section).

this place is top notch when it comes to covering major running events. the olympics and worlds have been especially enjoyable because of the LR coverage.

I was pleasantly surprised with Bathurst. It’s a nice little town.

I have never been to Bathurst, but i am sure the locals would have done their best to be well organised and make the event enjoyable.

Anytime Australia hosts a major running event is fine with me. It is a pity we cannot not hold a Diamond Leage event say In brisbane given its warmer climate.

I am a bit surprised they didn’t hold it in Centennial Park. If a competitor has flown around the world to a Sydney it would be nice to only have a 15 minute cab drive to a quaint Federation townhouse AirBnB in Paddington or any of the myriad of hotels in the city. Instead they land and have another three hour bus drive over the mountains, away from the coast, where it’s much hotter. It’s a long enough journey even if you live in Sydney, let alone anywhere else.

CP is closed down all the time for music festivals and also the Abbot Major marathon contender runs right through it. I can’t see why they couldn’t figure out a course around Centennial park, perhaps not enough elevation?

Are there hills in Centennial Park? The LOC said World Athletics told them they wanted them to make the course hard and if CP is flat, that may have made it difficult to make a tough course. I've heard good things about CP though and am hoping to run there when I'm in Sydney next week.