British junior women - total domination in Euro XC champs

But just wait until those Russians start using drugs. They will dominate for sure.

Awesome!!

Have never seen or heard anything like it! Last british person home before first person home from any other country!

Incredible!!

Very interesting to see how they develop on the world scene over the next few years.

Does anyone know why the junior women only run 4k? That seems like a really short distance, especially for a major event like the Euro Championships. Isn't the World XC Champs contested over 6K for the junior women? Thus, wouldn't it make more sense to run a 5K or 6K?

All the races are slightly shorter than the Worlds. I don't know why, just how it is.

Any of the girls interested in the NCAA system??

I would imagine one or two might end up in the states.

Twell is too good already, would be counter productive.

There were quite few college coaches lurking around the meet.

Since FL was the day before, I did not expect to see so many in Belgium.

simple questioner wrote:

Does anyone know why the junior women only run 4k? That seems like a really short distance, especially for a major event like the Euro Championships. Isn't the World XC Champs contested over 6K for the junior women? Thus, wouldn't it make more sense to run a 5K or 6K?

Perhaps because these are technically "early' season races. Most people getting ready for World cross don't start their XC racing season in August!!!

Maybe the US would do better at World XC if (a) their better runners, including Junior aged athletes, actually showed up at their National qualifier in order to make the team (b) didn't have to start a XC racing season 7 months before worlds!! It just shows the priority that worlds has in the scheme of the US system. The results at worlds seem to bear this out. With the talent available in the US HS snd College ranks, the Africans should be hard-pressed to win. Sadly that is NOT the case, and this (with only a few female exceptions - like Flanagan)is born out on the tracks of Europe in the summer these days.

I think a larger reason why the US doesn't do better in XC on the world scene (in the open divisions at least) is that the same financial incentives aren't in place for XC performance as for track or road performances.

I imagine a big performance at London or Boston, or at the US or World Championships on the track, is worth much more than a good showing in XC (due to a varying combination of USATF's prize money/incentives, contract-based incentives/performance bonuses, appearance fees, and event prize money/performance incentives) and, as such, we see more open division athletes pointing to those events as their peak competitions. XC just doesn't pay.

I do agree, though, that the US should be better at XC on the world stage; the same incentives should be in place to encourage XC performance as there are in place for track and road performance (why wouldn't we want to encourage our runners to perform well at the best race in the world, which the world XC races are?), and for many athletes the national and World XC meets would make great goal races during an early strength phase (much like Club XC was for McMillan Elite).

Also, who do people think would win over 5k XC, scored like the Euro meet: Britain's team, or the 6 UW women who swept the top 6 spots at PAC-10s? I'm taking UW, but remember that many of their runners are 2-ish years older than the Brits.

guareteed that it wud be british junior team.

That's funny because the GB girls from junior world's was hardly inpressive. Seems like the same bunch. I'll spot you the top two frosh girls from UW and run their bottom five against the brits any time.

The UW girls would win. The British junior team is very good, but the Huskies are on another level. And they're in a different age group, so comparisons are difficult to take seriously.

I think a better question is who would win a race between the British Junior National team and the Top 6 girls at Footlocker? That would be a closer race, and I think the British girls would probably win that competition.

Now I understand... wrote:

The UW girls would win. The British junior team is very good, but the Huskies are on another level. And they're in a different age group, so comparisons are difficult to take seriously.

I think a better question is who would win a race between the British Junior National team and the Top 6 girls at Footlocker? That would be a closer race, and I think the British girls would probably win that competition.

That wouldn't even be a race bearing in mind that Twell would beat Kipyego. The other girls weren't that far behind.

"Twell would beat Kipyego" - I doubt it!

Then again on a 2.5 mile course perhaps, since Twell is middle distance runner vs Sally who is an LD runner. I bet Sally could finish top-3 in European XC senior race; compare Sally's 5k/10k PR to the top drug free women in Europe.

Jordan lost to Twell at World Juniors.. I bet she will beat her in the future though!

Window Slow wrote:

Jordan lost to Twell at World Juniors.. I bet she will beat her in the future though!

Jordan isn't quite in Stephanie's league yet I'm afraid. Although I am prepared to say that she could have come third in the Euros today.

Window Slow wrote:

Jordan lost to Twell at World Juniors.. I bet she will beat her in the future though!

but twell is two years older and that matters at that age.

TrackCoach wrote:"Twell would beat Kipyego" - I doubt it!

I don't doubt it for one second. Almost one year ago, Twell finished fourth in the women's senior race at the Edinburgh Cross Country. She was 20 seconds behind Linet Masai (one of the best XC runners in the world) and recorded the same time as Vivian Cheruiyot - a woman six years her senior, who has represented Kenya three times at the World XC and finished eighth on each occasion. Twell also regularly beats the British senior women by big margins on the UK circuit - women who have finished in the top 15 at the World Cross.

Twell is faster than Kipyego over 1500m/3000m, but even Twell herself would say that she excels best over the XC. I'm pretty damn sure Twell could beat Kipyego, Hasay and the rest of the best that the US has to offer. I'd even go so far to say that Twell could have probably won silver or bronze in the senior women's race at the Euro XC last weekend.

Are you all mad?

Steph Twell would trounce Jordan Hassey and the Britsh Junior team would trounce UW.

Twell, has run 4.05 for 1500m and is world junior champion, and an Olympian ALREADY. As well as winning 3 euro cross titles from 17 - 19 years old. She has also broken 9 minutes for 3km.

None of the UW women would come close to her.

Then look at rest of team. Purdue has run 16.04 and is in much better shape now. Emily Pidgeon has run 15.41 for 5km and Lauren Howrth was in fron of her. I'd say that team Smashes any collegiate team.

Do some research before making such assumptions.