World Cross Country Championships, Day One

By Beth Whitney

Day Two Report

Colleen De Reuck and Deena Drossin, pictured at U.S. Cross Country Nationals, lead the U.S. women to a runner-up finish in the Senior Women's 8k. Photo: New York Road Runners

The easy camaraderie of the American team was evident as the athletes representing the United States milled about in the Newark, New Jersey airport awaiting the call to board their flight to Dublin. The honor attached to representing one's country at the World Cross Country Championships was apparent among the runners, almost all of whom wore the rich red and blue uniforms matching uniforms and seemed to stand a little straighter in them then they might in other clothing.

The Leopardstown course, located two miles outside of Dublin, winds around a horse track encircling a golf course, its vast expanse offering no refuge from the high gusting winds on Saturday. The headwinds were especially intense down the side of the multiple loop course that served as the finish line. The openness of the racecourse, with its background of rolling hills and misty gray skies and the colorful national uniforms of the athletes dotting its distant paths, presented a breathtakingly beautiful image. Its pristine remoteness offered a distinct contrast to the basic rawness and wearying brutality that typically defines Cross Country racing and sets it apart from other running events.

Spectators were relegated to the horse stand and a small fenced-in area set well apart from the finishing straight. Unlike previous World Cross Country Championships, fans were unable to line the course, and instead assembled in the betting stands at the foot of the finish line. The only spectators for most of the arduous race were the powder blue jacketed officials and race volunteers standing guard with pattern-like regularity along the edges of the course.

Missing was the usual role that cross country fans have in creating the insistent, driving energy and indefinable connection when attaching themselves to the physical edges of the competitive stage, shouting encouragement, cajoling and pleading urgently for their athletes to move up a spot or simply hang on. The tremendous athletic feats and fierce battles that defined the weekend seemed even more rarified and untouchable without the usual sounds of ragged breathing and spikes seeking purchase on the challenging terrain.

As the senior men lined up fittingly enough in the start gates normally reserved for horses, the spectators in the stands craned their necks for a glimpse of the gun smoke signaling the start of the race or turned toward the large video screen at the finish line.

The elevation changes over the course were slight, rising and falling in mostly gradual inclines only a total of 15 meters. The surface, however, consisting primarily of uneven grass, proved that hills alone aren't the sole benchmark of an arduous challenge. The relatively dry conditions leading up to the race ensured it wouldn't become the mud bath that many think of when they visualize world class European Cross Country. However, the way in which the irregular footing and relatively long ungroomed grass absorbed the energy of each successive foot strike without returning any meant that this was certainly a strength course in even the best conditions.

In the Senior Men's 4k race, nineteen-year-old Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia retained the lead he'd claimed soon after the gun, a position that surprised no one who witnessed his fluid and steady stride throughout the race. His winning time was 12:11. Luke Kipkosgei of Kenya follwed, with Hailu Mekonnen of Ethiopia two seconds back in third. The American team placed fifth, with Jorge Torres and Matt Lane (11th and 18th place respectively) both finishing in the top twenty.

By the time the competitors in the women's long-course race were lining up, the steady gusts had reached 30 mph and most of the stand-alone flags advertising shoe companies and phone services were threatening to break free. As expected, the runners stayed tightly bunched through the first pass in front of the stands, but by the second circuit the first two finishers had broken free along with a small front pack and asserted their dominance over the rest of the field.

While Deena Drossin and Paula Radcliffe were each plowing ahead of the other as though they already had the finish line in sight by one step only to again lose the fractional amount of ground they'd gained on the other, Colleen De Reuck looked as though she was simply hanging onto the chase pack for dear life. With the final lap she'd somehow managed to forge to the front of the pack, eventually breaking away for a third place finish.

The American women's long course team's performances and subsequent silver medal surprised most of the spectators in the stands despite the fact that on paper the previous accomplishments and experience of the members are extensive. Although Deena Drossin's battle with Paula Radcliffe was impressive, with both of them battling into the wind over the next to last loop of the course, Colleen De Reuck's outstanding performance in securing third place should not be overlooked.

Athletes after both races remarked on how strange it felt to be separated out from the spectators although the course. Thankfully course marshals were anything but stingy with their support, especially for their fellow Irishmen. As places were traded and surges covered on the far side of the loop, the athletes could hear the roar of the audience responding as the fans followed the competition on the large video screen and on the television monitors just inside the bleachers. When the athletes passed in front of the stands, the din caused by the density of onlookers resulted in a physical vibration and an accompanying burst of adrenaline.

Later that night at the pub, members of the men's Irish Cross Country team that was led to a medal spot in 1979 in Limerick by John Treacy's first place showing that day surmised that perhaps the officials were afraid that the past would repeat itself here tomorrow. Again a raucous crowd might storm the course in celebration before the last finisher arrived should a hometown hero take first once more on Irish soil, this time in the form of Sonia O'Sullivan. As it later turned out, neither of these assumptions proved true.

Beth Whitney is a new media art director and working fine artist/sculptor by trade. Despite not picking up running until after college, she is also an elite marathoner.