Women’s participation and popularity in sports has increased dramatically in the 20th century. However, women who run cross country competitively feel patronised with running shorter distances than men.
Although local organised cross country leagues involve races where men and women run together, differing distances still exist in the regional and nationals cross-country events.
Organisers of cross country races in the United Kingdom are facing a revolt.
Maud Hodson, a keen long distance runner, and former Great British medal winner, Jo Pavey began the petition RunEqual late December 2017. Since then hashtag #RunEqual is taking off on social media with many elite and non-elite runners supporting the campaign.
So far, they’ve gathered more than 2,480 signatures and continue to grow.
Hodson told The Independent that “Girls are conditioned from a young age not to aim high, not to challenge themselves.” Ms Hodson has always challenged herself to excel to her best. A few weeks back, she took second place in an ultra-marathon based in Essex, First place was awarded to Karen Levison, and both women beat the best male competitor.
Ms Hodson and other elite female athletes want a change to a system similar to that in Scotland. In Scotland, the rule was changed in 2016 for men and women to race over the same distance. Back in 2017 was the first time that women raced over the same distance as men at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships.
Campaigners also want to see this similar change in English events – or the continuation of two different distances, but with all athletes able to choose which race to compete in.
History of Women’s Cross Country
It should be time for women to compete over the same distances as men. Before the 1980’s there wasn’t women distance races in the Olympics – the longest female race at the 1980 Moscow Olympics was the 1,500m.
Women were barred from competing in the 26.2 mile marathon challenge until the 1970’s. The 1972 Boston Marathon permitted female entrants for the first time. Eventually, the first Olympic Games marathon was hosted by Los Angeles in 1984 and was won by Joan Benoit.
Since the 1912 Olympics of Stockholm, for over 100 years the 5k and 10k distances on track were permanent features of the men’s timetable. However, the women’s 10k was not introduced until the 1988 Seoul Olympics, when Liz McColgan GB Olympic athlete on silver, and between 1984 and 1992 women competed over 3,000m until the 5k run was instigated at the Atlanta 1996 Olympics.
Run for Fun – Race for Place
This month, the National Cross Country Championships are to take place in London on the 24th February. #RunEqual campaigners are hoping that UK Athletics and England Athletics to take notice on the issue. No action has been taking place yet. However, the English Cross Country Association announced that it would conduct a survey with athletes at the National Cross Country Championships in London after recent requests for the running distances to be reconsidered.
When the event was last at Parliament Hill in 2015, there were only 3355 entries. Now, there are 9472 runners entered to take part at Parliament Hill this weekend. This year, it has been a record breaking of entries, with an increase of participants in four categories, including Senior Women up by 170, Under 13 Girls seeing 648 entries – the best participation numbers since 1996, 634 entries for the Under 15 Girls race and high numbers seen in the Under 17 Women’s race with 407 contestants.
Overall there are ten races taking place, the first to race are the Under 17 Women Championships at 11:00am and the last at 3:00pm being the Senior Men Championships.
