From Bathurst to Budapest: Focus now shifts to the track

Team Kenya arrives back home at midnight Tuesday, victorious but returning with better lessons, insights and great hopes for Kenyan athletics.

One of the most endearing legacies of the 2023 World Athletics Cross Country Championships is the realisation that Kenya’s small towns, like Kisii, Eldoret and Nanyuki, stand a chance of hosting future world championships using their natural geographical features as an advantage.

But what next for these championships and, by extension, outdoor competitions now and in future?

Kenya is losing its grip on the 3,000 metres steeplechase, while reclaiming the 5,000 and 10,000 metres dominance is now an urgent matter as focus now shifts to track racing leading to the World Athletics Championships in Athletics in Budapest, Hungary this July.

Change and convergence

The cross country championships were once an annual ritual until the emergence of east Africa's domination and dwindling European presence made them less attractive to major western television networks.

But World Athletics is looking for change and convergence with other sporting disciplines to enhance athletics as the most popular and mass-participated sporting discipline after football in a changing world amid scarcity of bidding venues and climate change threats.

"All said and done, cross country should be across the country. I competed in many events, raced through residential buildings, horse racing courses, dirt and mud trails. This is what I call cross country," Paul Tergat, Kenya’s five-time world cross country champion maintained on the sidelines of last weekend’s competition in Bathurst where he was the event’s goodwill ambassador.

Minimal logistical costs

Kenya has many locations which can host these championships which last for less than three hours and require minimal logistical costs.

Kenya hosted very successful championships, attracting over 30,000 spectators in Mombasa in 2007.

But many authorities warned of the dangers of heat and humidity to the human body, as witnessed in Mombasa.

Similar conditions were seen here in Bathurst before a thunderstorm changed the weather from hot to cold in a split of a second.

World Athletics President Sebastian Coe gave an insight of the dangers the world is facing, but in retrospect looked back to the glorious past.

“I am delighted to see my well-travelled colleague. I hope by now that you have been told about the importance attached to cross country in the presence of our goodwill ambassador who, in my opinion, is the greatest cross country runner of all time,” said Coe in support of Tergat's position on cross country running.

Cross country is always held under warm weather conditions in some areas but in winter in others.

It is also a victim of climate change in which organisers will be faced by challenges of looking for better venues and suitable hosts.

Long distance running events may have to be “decoupled” from athletics championships due to climate change, Coe warned.

“Soaring temperatures could make endurance events unsafe during summer,” added Coe.

“The fact is we now live in a world that is changing very fast, and climate change is in so many ways impacting on things that we do.

“I think we’re going to have to look at the calendar in a very different way in the years to come. I can’t see how any of the immediate (heat) challenges are going to be resolved in the foreseeable future," said Coe, but encouraged more African countries not to shy away from bidding for athletics championships.

The Summer Olympics and World Athletic Championships are held in Europe mid-year during warmer months, but this is becoming more of a problem as global temperatures rise.

Many competitors were overwhelmed by the heat and humidity in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and similar scenarios were recorded here with a New Zealand athlete fainting and requiring hospitalisation from heat exhaustion.

Coe indicated that the Olympic organising committee should think about the changing global temperatures when planning events.

“Had the (2024) Paris Olympics been last summer or the summer before, you would have been in exactly the same situation as Tokyo," Coe, himself chairman on the 2012 London Olympic Games Organising Committee, said.

“So I think we are going to have to spend a great deal of time thinking about what the calendar looks like and maybe... uncoupling some of the tougher endurance events from our world championships."

It is envisaged that similar conditions would not have been experienced in Nairobi had Kenya won the bid to host the 2025 World Championships in Athletics in the month of July as has been seen in the last two editions of the World Under-18 Championships and World Under-20 Championships in 2017 and 2021, respectively, when most parts of Kenya were cold.

Coe, who was speaking at a press conference attended by many top World Athletics officials including Athletics Kenya President Jack Tuwei, encouraged more African countries to continue bidding for athletics competitions in a sport already enjoying resurgence in many areas.

"This (cross country) is one very unique event and I am hoping with time we are going to change the narrative and even my small town (Riwo, Baringo) in future will be offered an opportunity of bidding to host the World Cross Country Championships,” Tergat, also a former marathon world record holder, envisaged with a touch of humour.

In for a long, rough ride

For Team Kenya members, cross country is now past and they will shift attention to the track, focusing on the World Championships in Budapest as Nairobi hosts a track and field weekend meeting this Friday and Saturday at Nairobi’s Nyayo National Stadium.

Athletics Kenya Vice President Paul Mutwii says they are planning special camps for the 5,000 and 10,000 metres athletes along with steeplechasers in friendly countries before the Budapest outing.

Going by the form of world cross country champion Jacob Kiplimo, his Ugandan compatriot Joshua Cheptegei, and the never ending threat from Ethiopia, Kenya is in for a long, rough ride on the track.

But on the other hand, Beatrice Chebet, the senior women's world cross country champion, is just starting and is now confident of daring track sensation and multiple world record holder Letesenbet Gidey in the 5,000 and 10,000 metres after stunning her in winning the gold in Bathurst on Saturday.