Too many Africans in European Cross Country?

I think the time has come to scrap championships based on geographical barriers. We live in a global society with people of different nationalities living in different countries all over the world. A European championship (or Pan American championship) has as much relevance as a championship for people named 'Peter'.

In that case, why not scrap every regional championship, anywhere? There has to be building blocks on the road to world championship competition, and that's what the europeans, pan-american games, asian games etc are, though more and more they're being inundated with foreign athletes who switch allegiance from a powerhouse nation where they're nobodies to rep a minnow and win medals and all the financial rewards that come with it.

So the Europeans are angry that Africans are knocking 'authentic' Europeans off the medal stand and stealing their hardware. Cry me a river. Maybe they should practice some tolerance and appreciate the increased competition. I do see where the frustration comes in but, as the OP suggested, perhaps there should be some kind of sit out period after switching citizenships so you don't get Africans who have trained in Africa their entire lives and come over and destroy everyone.

I think the Europeans should be even more unhappy that they have an African doper winning European cross country. The guy was caught carrying around vials of his own blood, for Pete's sake!

As far as citizenship goes, there should be one standard that applies to everyone for athletes changing nationality in athletics competition, otherwise you give an unfair advantage to countries that give away citizenship to acquire athletes.

My own rule would be (1) once you have competed for one country internationally, you can't change (Lagat, for example would be running for Kenya), (2) if you change, you have to sit out for four years from the change to cover the Olympics cycle. I would allow the IAAF to make exceptions for extraordinary cases involving political asylum or stateless people.

freerider32dd wrote:

In that case, why not scrap every regional championship, anywhere? There has to be building blocks on the road to world championship competition, and that's what the europeans, pan-american games, asian games etc are, though more and more they're being inundated with foreign athletes who switch allegiance from a powerhouse nation where they're nobodies to rep a minnow and win medals and all the financial rewards that come with it.

False. The building blocks to world champahip competition are national championships. There are plenty of other track meets around the world with every level of competition.

The sport is hanging by the fingernails in terms of sponsorship. We've seen the WCC reduced to five per decade by the IAAF. Euro' should be smarter than that and keep the rules for participation stringent.

This a a great event. It would be a shame if it were chipped away at every year by federations including personnel that shouldn't be involved.

Maybe native born Europeans should take up the challenge and run faster instead of whinging.

The problem is that, realistically, the east africans have the potential to destroy any regional championship distance events, with the exception of mo farah obviously. It's a similar argument to the ncaa xc with the east african imports, and it's at a level at the moment that's tolerable, but it's growing every year. You can say the europeans aren't up to it, which they aren't, but by getting destroyed by sub-13 men every year and lessening their chances/motivation for success at european level, itl only further the problem IMO.