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Championship
Background A further explanation is probably needed as to the divisions that are held in international IAAF governed World level competitions, with a “junior” age athlete based upon age, not grade in school, as we are so used to within some general limitations. A “junior” age athlete who competes internationally is one who will not turn 20 during the year of the competition, and can only be up to age 19. This means no one who competes in the 2008 World Cross Country Championships, or USA qualifying meet to this competition, can be born anytime during 1988. They must be born in 1989 or later, as anyone born even December 31st, 1988 would turn 20 during this calendar year of 2008 and not be eligible for world level "junior" competition. So, a US qualifying competition is made up of a number of first year collegiate athletes who will not turn 20 years of age during 2008, with the collegiate-high school mix giving the competitions in Cross Country and Track and Field an interesting flavor. The June US Junior Track and Field competition is at Ohio State University and will qualify for July’s World Junior T&F Championships in Poland. The Collegiate frosh typically have been buried in competitions against their senior elders at that level, with the best preps usually finding superior competition against those honed for a season on the University level fields in their ‘Junior’ Championship events. The World Championships in Cross-Country this year will take place in Edinburgh, Scotland, on March 30th, a time when American athletes who run the distances are typically thinking in terms of the end of their Indoor seasons and the start of the Spring outdoor Track and Field seasons. There is also a North America, Central American, & Caribbean (NACAC) Cross Country Championships at a site to be determined prior to the World Championship meet that some from the US Championships may qualify for. Therefore, to select a team that makes some sense as far as showing fitness for the team a month and a half off, the US is forced to have its qualifying competition in mid-February, which we will do this coming weekend in San Diego at Mission Bay. Cross Country internationally is kind of like the University level in the US as far as course intensity mentality, and while US preps may delight in the difficulty of their courses as far as rigorous hills involved over distances up to 5k, such as the one you see the Championship Foot Locker crew racing up and down in San Diego’s Morley Field/Balboa Park. That is not the case in international cross-country, with “slightly rolling” venues about as tough as it gets as the athletes race out as far as 12 kilometers in the Men’s Senior division race. Mission Bay, a grassy, very gently rolling park that borders the entry of the Pacific Ocean into the San Diego area of California, has been chosen for the US Championships Saturday, February 16th, 2008. With the ‘near the ocean’ weather in Southern California among the best in the world year-round it looks like a beautiful morning of competition is to be expected for the series of races that go from 9 a.m. with a community 4k event and finishes with the Senior Men’s contest of 12k in distance at 2 p.m. With ‘partly cloudy’ as tough as the weather preview is between now and meet time, with a high of 69 degrees predicted, the biggest problem will be the heat difficulties some will experience who have been training in near freezing weather climes around the nation during the preparation process. The Foot Locker Prep Nationals have their racing done by mid-morning in recent years, with a late morning start in decades past putting those used to 20 and 30 degree weather into real heat issue concerns when the thermometer crept up to 70 degrees or over on the challenging 5k course used. With the Junior Women’s race at 11:45 a.m. (6k) and Junior Men’s (8k) at 12:30, a mini ‘heat-wave’ could find some who have been experiencing a real winter recently in a bit of trouble. In viewing the entrants thru mid-week of the competiton, the Junior Men’s field seemed at first glace obviously much larger than the Junior Women’s, with quite a bit more depth in its quality. The difficulty of timing of this competition for the typical American Cross Country and Track and Field program probably adds to the difficulties, with coaches needing to make choices to emphasize indoor Track and Field, forcus on this competition, or plan for the outdoor Track and Field season. As collegiate young male athletes go through the developmental stages to prepare to work up to the 10k distance for the Fall championships at their level, many fine young runners find themselves red-shirted for their first year of their university athletic career, with this race a point of emphasis for their harrier running. American female athletes at the college level need usually only to move from 5k (longest HS distances) to 6k for the championship level races, so it seems many more of them have had a full fall of actual racing for their teams. Also, it appears many more of the top eligible female runners have decided to focus on indoor Track and Field or look to the outdoor season in that sport. With entries possible up until 5 p.m. on Friday, February 15th, there are still more entrants of quality possible for the events, though one would think that travel plans and costs and all would involve entry as to this time in mid-week. So how does the competition look and how do the fields play out based upon how they have done so far? We will have previews for both meets, but this is one of those competitions where it is based upon races that have taken place for most some months ago. With at least a couple of months since the end of the US Cross-Country season for most, some real improvements or some real problems may have taken place. Impressive quality preps are red-shirted at the first year collegiate level, and may have only shown for an early Fall contest or two before assuming a status that will have them ready for the spring or next fall at the University team level. A few athletes have had some fine performances indoors during the Winter Track and Field campaign, but for the most part these previews are based upon what took place during a fall campaign that for most ended in the month of November. The USA Track and Field site on the meet at one time had a definite commitment to six athletes from each of the Junior Championship races to make the World competition team, with that link now having been removed. We assume there was some difficulty with wording, and that they will still honor, as they have in most normal recent years, the team of six, with four scoring at the Junior level. The 2007 World Cross Country Championships were in Kenya, and with security issues there, the Junior US Women’s team did not attend, and the Junior Men’s group took five, with two non-finishers in the brutal weather conditions there making the US a non-scoring group.
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