Here we experience World Cross through the lens of the social media mentions of KIMbia’s World Cross athletes Elliott Heath, Emily Infeld (pictured above, photo by LetsRun.com) and Ireland’s Fionnuala Britton… Read the full article
The big pre-race story of the 2013 World Cross Country Championships in Bydgoszcz Poland was a tough course and wintery conditions, and when the dust — or, snow — settled the importance of both was borne out by the big post-race story: a team silver for the American senior men’s team. Elliott Heath placed 30th in the race, the fifth finisher for Team USA, and ahead of two-thirds of the what is widely considered the deepest field in any distance race on the planet. Meanwhile, Fionnuala Britton and Emily Infeld keyed strong placings for their respective teams, each of which finished just outside of the medals.
Matching her best finish at World Cross, Britton crossed the line in 14th place, leading the Irish team to a fifth place team finish. After grabbing team and individual gold at Euro Champs, Britton and Ireland reprised that form chart by being the top European representatives in Poland. Ireland scored seven points better than France and while the reigning two-time European champion was nine seconds ahead of Sophie Duarte, France’s top runner and the second European finisher in Poland.
In her first appearance at a World Championship, Infeld took a strong 21st and was the #2 finisher on a fourth-place American team, ahead of US runner-up Kim Conley and Deena Kastor, previously a medalist at this event.
or, Wuthering Snow in the Madding Crowd of Poland in Middle March with Great Expectations
Guest Editorial by Van Townsend
Elliot Heath, he of the 19th Century English novelist moniker, might just spring a surprise in snow-laden Poland at World Cross. Don’t let the downplayed social loser media and web wannabes fool you into thinking World Cross isn’t the ultimate testing ground for mental and physical toughness: this game goes out fast and never lets up. WC is relentless pain. Look at interviews with Jerry’s guys, Bumbi and Brent, who have been there before. It is not pretty.
The Africans, which actually mean a gazillion athletes given nationality from well-paid countries such as Bahrain, Qatar and other historic hotbeds of harriers (not) will of course be in Bydgoszcz. But snowy turf doesn’t cater to these Runners-of-Fortune. On the course preview days at Boston World Cross in ’92, Read the full article
As a running fan posted to Twitter on Saturday, the only inevitabilities in life seem to be death, taxes, and Shalane Flanagan winning the US Cross Country Championships. In the St. Louis-hosted 2013 edition of the race, Flanagan felt some pressure from Kim Conley, but the Jerry Schumacher-coached athlete still managed to open a sizeable margin of victory to capture her sixth US Cross Country title. Meanwhile, with the top six finishers in the men’s and women’s races earning berths to represent America at the World Championships, every entrant from the Schumacher training group placed in the top four of their respective races.
Lining up alongside Shalane, Emily Infeld took fourth in her first-ever competition as a pro athlete, defeating such accomplished athletes as Sara Hall, Magdalena Lewy-Boulet, Neely Spence, and Alissa McKaig. Just six seconds ahead of the fast-finishing Georgetown graduate was all-time great Deena Kastor. Mirroring Infeld on the men’s side was Elliott Heath — also in fourth, also in his debut. In what was arguably the fastest collection of track 10,000m runners ever assembled for this race, Read the full article
In Antrim, Northern Ireland, Dublin’s Fionnuala Britton collected her third victory of the 2012-2013 cross country season. Britton was the defending champion from the 2012 edition of the race, and won this time by a comfortable 12-second margin. According to the IAAF, the Irishwoman was warmly greeted by the crowd prior a race in which she easily dispatched the competition, writing that “Britton led from the gun and held a 15-second lead over Britain’s Louise Damen at the end of the first of three main laps and had the luxury of being able to ease off slightly on the final circuit of Greenmount.”
Since 2009, Britton now has six victories in international cross country meetings with ten additional Top 5 finishes. She will look for her highest-ever finish at World Cross in Poland on March 24th, after finishing 16th in 2011.
A video from Antrim with race footage and a short post-run interview can be seen here, with an additional video available after the jump. Read the full article