Wow. World Cross races to switch to 10km for both genders to have gender equity. Will NCAA follow suit?

About time

Are you suggesting NCAA men and women both run, 5K? 8K? 10K? I think we know the reasons collegiate athletes compete over different distances.

There was a time when the English National XC was 10 ** MILES ** !

If the women want equality no prob, they can run 12km. They do everything else the men do (except for jumping the same height barriers in the 'chase). Do we have Paula to thank for this?

I am sorry to see the 12K get moved down to a 10K, just as I was sorry to see World Cross teams go from 9 members with 6 scorers to 7 members with 4 scorers, just as I was sorry to see the event go from every year to every other year. It was also saddening to see how the importance of World Cross Championships - at one time considered by not a few to be the most competitive distance race in the world - in less than a decade fell to a second tier race which most top distance runners in the world skipped.

Moving the men down from 12K and the women up from 8K is not going to restore the event's prestige or popularity (either among elite runners or distance fans). And that is the sad news with respect to this change...

World Cross is not a major.

That's not "gender". That is "sex".

Noting the two people responsible for this decision, we should also note what else it may imply, namely, that if World XC is run at 10000m, they can say that there is no need for a track 10000m championship and the latter may disappear. It is obviously wrong for women to run a different distance, but nor reason in the world to lower the men's distance. What, was there a limit of 20k on total distance that could be run in a day between men and women? They need to go the opposite route, put back the 4k and the 12k, have them for both genders, and do the champs every year.

"Two-time senior world cross-country champion and world marathon record-holder Paula Radcliffe is among those on the IAAF Cross Country Committee, the Briton having been elected into the role at the recent IAAF Congress in Beijing.

Radcliffe was one of the speakers at a global seminar on cross-country running held in Belgrade in 2013, which discussed the major issues facing cross-country participation and cross-country running in general. The seminar was chaired by the now IAAF president Seb Coe, who was then an IAAF vice president.

In his foreward to the IAAF Competition Rules 2016-17, Coe commented: “As a former athlete I’m the first to understand that these rules are the bedrock of everything that an athlete or official does in the competition environment.

“Athletics like all sports is defined by its rules. They provide standardised boundaries for each event discipline and, in turn, clarity and understanding about the decisions taken for the entire athletics family including media and fans.”

Read more at

http://www.athleticsweekly.com/featured/gender-parity-for-senior-events-at-iaaf-world-cross-35322/#pBAvuXTfOdQWALZG.99

I would like to see the race down to 3 miles for both men and women and have brutally hard xc course. lots of hills, muddy or stream crossings, and on loops of 1/2 mile or less to allow for better video coverage and better live viewing.

The Scot wrote:

They do everything else the men do (except for jumping the same height barriers in the 'chase).

And the other hurdles' events. And Heptathlon vs. Decathlon. And different weights in the Discus, Shot Put, Javelin and Hammer.

Plenty of room to get things level.

NCAA probably won't follow suit anytime soon as cross country is a premiere women's sport in America now. With the shorter distance they get better participation numbers, more efficient cross-over for track athletes, and can have more races. I think it is more likely they lower the distance for the men's races as we grind towards the inevitable elimination of men's cross country from most NCAA d1 schools.

"Will the NCAA follow suit?" Not bleedin' likely...

As pointed out above, the shorter current distance for women (not that 6km is particularly short) allows for participation by lots of female mid-distance types...which is very popular for boosting Title IX numbers.

Anyway, who wants to hang around while women run 10,000 meters? It's bad enough in a track meet, when you're (generally) assured that true distance runners are involved, and there are no hills or bad footing to slow things down--imagine waiting the best part of an hour for seventh runners (who maybe do 800/1500 in track) to slog their way to the finish. Ugh.

Scrap the 10,000m on the track and replace it with a 12k XC (for both men and women).

The usual stupidity, assuming the sexes are the same, and sameness is sexy.Pretty soon they will outlaw football because only men can play it.

LetsRun.com wrote:

Has anyone besides Athletics weekly noticed that World XC will no longer be 12km for the men? The men are moving down from 12km to 10km. The women are moving up from 8km to 10km.

Men and women running ten kilometers is the same as banning football! It's PC gone mad!

I think it would be good for the sport of the y added XC to the Olympics and dropped the 10000.. Maybe this is a step In that direction, The. partication increase would be huge though. Individuals and teams would have to qualify.

NCAA does not need to change.

Personally I think it should be 8k for both. That allows milers and 5k specialists to compete with the marathoners and 10k specialists.

I agree

Almost there wrote:

Personally I think it should be 8k for both. That allows milers and 5k specialists to compete with the marathoners and 10k specialists.

Almost there wrote:

Personally I think it should be 8k for both. That allows milers and 5k specialists to compete with the marathoners and 10k specialists.

Then maybe Americans could place in the standings.

Almost there wrote:

Personally I think it should be 8k for both. That allows milers and 5k specialists to compete with the marathoners and 10k specialists.

Agree, though I don't think the marathoners would be very competitive, but it would be more competitive overall.