SA team aiming to end medal drought at World Cross Country Champs

In distance running, there is one event which stands out as the most challenging of them all.

While marathons and ultra-marathons can be brutal, and the closing 1 500m in the Olympic decathlon can break a man, to find the cauldron where the world’s best distance runners are produced, we must look to the World Cross Country Championships.

While the cross country discipline is considered key for development of young athletes, it is not a focal point for senior athletes, with professional runners concentrating on the track or the road.

Every two years, however, the world’s best converge in a helluva battle where the greatest of champions are crowned.

Teamwork and depth

In other disciplines, athletes specialise in events from middle-distances (800m – 1500m) to long distances (5,000m – 10,000m on the track and 10km – 42km on the road).

Cross country, however, sees all these athletes toeing the line in the same races, and it makes for exciting contests.

In addition, large squads test each other’s depth by working together as teams, which adds a unique dynamic to cross country that you don’t see in other forms of distance running.

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Traditionally held on muddy, uneven and undulating courses in harsh conditions, the World Cross Country Championships is specifically designed to be brutal, and to win the global title an athlete must be fast, strong and tough.

It is because it’s so rough, of course, that cross country remains the only discipline in which South Africa has never earned a medal at a major global championship.

While the nation’s elite women came close in the Nineties, narrowly missing the podium on multiple occasions, and SA-born athletes Zola Budd (Great Britain) and Colleen de Reuck (United States) went on to earn medals for other countries, a global cross country medal continues to elude SA’s top athletes.

Promising relay team

On Saturday morning, however, the longest drought in South African athletics could finally end when a top-drawer national team turns out in the mixed relay at the World Championships in Bathurst, Australia.

The relay quartet features two-time Olympic 800m champion Caster Semenya, rising middle-distance stars Prudence Sekgodiso and Ryan Mphahlele, and experienced track athlete Tshepo Tshite, and they should combine well in the 4x2km race.

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If we’re realistic, we must admit that the national squad is unlikely to put up much of a fight at the front of individual races against quality international line-ups in Bathurst.

But if they are at their best, the SA mixed relay team might just give themselves a chance. And a long-awaited place on the podium at the toughest of events might finally be achieved.