By David Rogers. BATHURST, NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA — Crocodile Dundee will not be around on Feb. 18 in New South Wales, Australia, to save any of the nearly 800 male and female elite running athletes from around the world who might fall into a reptile-infested billabong during the World Cross Country Championships in Bathurst. And while the event organizers may only be having a bit of fun with their crocodile signs, the early comments among the competitors is that Bathurst will be the “toughest” course many of them have faced.
Counting an Athlete Refugee Team, nearly 50 nations have sent runners to compete in the senior men, senior women, under 20 men, under 20 women, and mixed relay events. In addition to Australia and the USA, there are teams from almost every continent. The countries represented include Uganda, South Africa, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia from Africa; Great Britain and Spain from Europe; Japan, Fiji, and China from Asia; Brazil, Canada, Mexico and the USA from North and South America and several others from around the world.
Blowing Rock and the High Country are represented in what will arguably be the fastest race of the day: the Senior Men’s Division. ZAP Endurance team member Andrew Colley was the second fastest qualifier for the U.S. team last month in Richmond, so will be one of the six American men running in the event. Colley finished just four seconds behind Emmanuel Bor, who competed collegiately for the University of Alabama and now represents the U.S. Army.
“This is a tough course,” ZAP Endurance head coach Pete Rea reported to High Country Sports by telephone on Feb. 17, the day before the event, as he and Colley surveyed the course. “The elevation change is only about 190 feet, but the race directors were told by World Athletics to ‘make it tough’ and they followed through on that request for this two-kilometer circuit. If you grew up on a farm running on pasture land, you will be right at home because much of the course is uneven.”
Set in the middle of Bathurst’s Mount Panorama motor racing track, the 2-kilometer circuit is fast, but hard, too. According to Rea, there is an 11 percent climb at one point, in addition to what amounts to a mud pit and some 50 meters of amounts to a sand pit. Anyone who has tried running on the beach, off the water’s edge, will know what that is like.
“I am pretty sure the course will live up to its billing as being a tough course,” said Rea.
According to the 2023 World Cross Country Championships event program information, more than 12,000 athletes from 175 countries have competed in the event over the years, with five countries having competed in all 43 events. Those five include France, Great Britain/Northern Ireland, Italy, Spain, and the United States. The largest event was in 2000, when the event was hosted in Vilamoura, Portugal, with 806 athletes from 76 countries.
Other event notes:
- The most medals won by an individual country is 320 by Kenya, followed by Ethiopia’s 271 and 63 by the U.S.
- Kenya has won at least one gold medal in ever event since 1986.
- The closest finish was in the 1973 senior men’s race when Pekka Paivarenta of Finland finished just one-tenth of a second ahead of Spain’s Mariano Haro.
- Sweeps of all four individual titles have been by Kenya in 1994 and 2010, as well as by Ethiopia in 2008.
- The youngest ever competitor is Su Su-Ning of Chinese Taipei, who was 12 years old when she placed 119th in the 1991 Under 20 women’s race. Current regulations prevent anyone younger than 16 from competing.
- The oldest champion and medalist is New Zealand’s Jack Foster in 1975, when he was 42 years, 297 days old.
- The World Cross Country Championships have been hosted in a variety of countries since first staged in Belgium, in 1973. They include stops in Italy, Great Britain, Ireland, France, Spain, the U.S., China, Portugal, Switzerland, Poland, New Zealand, Norway, Hungary, South Africa, Japan, Kenya, Uganda, and Denmark — and some countries multiple times.
The Senior Men’s race in which Colley is scheduled to run is set for 1 p.m. on Feb. 18, in Australia, which if our calculations are correct, is approximately 9:00 p.m. on Feb. 17 in North Carolina.
The World Athletics website suggests that the race may be watched on CNBC and Peacock, or livestreamed on the World Athletics YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/worldathletics.
