I can remember a time when most of the running done in April was on a spring training trip, and preferably somewhere warm. It was a short but welcome break after the indoor and cross-county season, and some time to reflect and recharge in advance of the long summer of track racing to come.
These days there are so many running events colliding around this time of year, from spring road races to the increasingly earlier start of the outdoor season, that it’s hard for some athletes to decide where they should go. And it’s getting harder for some national federations to decide on that too.
Part of the problem is the ever-expanding diary of running events, the latest of which is the inaugural European Running Championships set for Leuven in Belgium next weekend (April 12th-13th).
This new event, to be staged biennially, features 10km, half marathon and marathon road distances, and is also open to recreational runners, who get to race alongside some of Europe’s elite.
The event has not got off to a great start. Earlier this week, British distance runner Ben Connor made headlines when he turned down his selection for Leuven in the half marathon, after UK Athletics announced that all selected athletes would be asked to pay up to £1,100 to help cover travel expenses, accommodation, food, running kit and support staff.
At age 32, there is no disputing Connor’s running pedigree. A British champion on the track and cross-country, he also ran the Tokyo Olympic marathon. In a social media post on Tuesday he outlined his reasons for rejecting another British vest: “UK Athletics are asking for a significant athlete contribution, which until a few days ago was an unknown amount and although England Athletics have offered to subsidise this for their athletes, to which I’m sure many are grateful for, I feel it is wrong.
“Representing your country is a privilege and in athletics, it’s earned via a qualifying process, which whilst not always perfect, gives everyone the same chances to gain selection.
“Representing Great Britain shouldn’t come down to who can or cannot afford to pay for it. Coming from a working-class background I don’t like the potential precedence [sic] being set where people, especially junior athletes of the future don’t have the same development or competition opportunities because of finances.”
In response, UK Athletics said the actual contribution “was likely to be under £500″, and as more competitions get added to the calendar it is “impossible” to fund all teams. It also added that “a number of other Olympic sports have similar models whereby competition outside the major senior championships is self-funded” and “it is better to give athletes opportunity to compete than opt not to send teams at all”.
As it turns out, Connor is set to race this Sunday in the Cobh 10-mile road race, which I’ve put my name behind, and has been filling the gap in the Cork road-running scene since the famous Ballycotton ‘10′ finished in 2017.
How Connor ended up coming here is explained by the fact his wife Lily Partridge is coached by Alan Storey in London, one of my former coaches, and each year I call him to ask has he one or two athletes he’d like to send over to race in Cobh. So that’s how Connor and Partridge got their invite, which for Connor would come before his selection for the European Running Championships. For the few elite entries every year, the event does cover flights and hotel, so it’s still not without some expense for the athlete.
There is some prize money, the men’s and women’s winners getting €500 each, and also a course record bonus, which rolls over each year it’s not won, and is currently worth €1,500 for the men and €1,000 for the women.
It’s not a big pay-day by any means, but going back to Connor’s case with UK Athletics, I 100 per cent agree that no athlete should be expected to pay their own way to a championship event. And maybe part of Connor’s thinking was if he pays this time, would that set a precedent for the future?
Still, there is some reasoning behind the UK Athletics’ approach. For this first year, the European Running Championships are essentially a test event, and nowhere near the status of the European Cross-Country or European Athletics Championships, indoors and outdoors, which have been running for years.
Athletics Ireland this week named seven athletes for Leuven, including Seán Tobin, Keelan Kilrehill and Cormac Dalton in the men’s 10km; Niamh Allen and Emily Haggard in the women’s 10km; and Efren Gidey and Ann-Marie McGlynn in the half marathon. Gidey will be racing again after breaking the Irish 10,000m record on the track in California last Saturday, his 27:26.95 taking some 13 seconds off the previous mark set by Alistair Cragg in 2007
Athletics Ireland currently benefit from several healthy sponsors, including a new kit deal with Adidas, while in contrast, UK athletics are currently without a headline sponsor, known to be struggling financially, and in need of making some cutbacks.
In the past, UK Athletics would nearly always send full teams to most European championship events, once the athlete reached the qualifying criteria. That’s no longer the case, and they also cut back on the number of teams sent to the European Cross-Country in Turkey in December.
For certain other events, athletes are well used to paying some of their own way. At the World Masters Indoor Championships in Gainesville, Florida last month, where Irish athletes brought home a suitcase full of medals, most would have paid for almost everything, in some cases the team kit too.
I can also remember my time running the World University Games, in Sheffield in 1991, when athletes were asked to contribute around 500 old Irish punts, which was a lot of money at the time, the assumption being the university would make most of that contribution.
But I do think no athlete selection should be based on whether they can pay, and no selection should come down to the athlete with the most money. That could soon be a problem for more federations than just UK Athletics.
