Forward of the forty sixth version of the occasion in Florida, we mirror on the historical past of the occasion by means of Mark Shearman’s images over the many years.
Three years in the past the World Cross Nation Championships marked its fiftieth anniversary, with Bathurst in Australia offering a novel expertise as athletes ran on a hilly course inside an auto racing monitor. They even handed by means of a winery.
This yr’s version, held on the Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee, consists of obstacles like “alligator alley”, a man-made “rollercoaster” ramp, a 90ft lengthy sand pit, a 20ft-long and knee-deep water part and a 100ft stretch of mud that pays homage to the Everglades.
It is a good distance from the primary championships held in Waregem, Belgium in 1973. The precursor to that was the ‘Worldwide’ cross-country championships, staged on Hamilton Racecourse in Scotland.
Usually dubbed ‘the hardest footrace on the planet’, the World Cross Nation Championships boasts a protracted and various historical past, with every host nation offering their very own challenges to among the world’s greatest runners.
These inaugural championships featured athletes from simply 21 international locations with the quantity rising over the following many years to 33 in 1983, 54 in 1993 and 65 in 2003.
The 2019 championships in Aarhus, Denmark – an occasion which captured the creativeness and helped take cross nation into the trendy age – noticed athletes from 67 of World Athletics’ 214 member nations end up.
This version in Tallahassee boasts 485 athletes from 52 federations.
From John Treacy and Paula Radcliffe to Kenenisa Bekele and Religion Kipyegon, among the all-time greats have competed at these championships. They’ve all skilled totally different situations and quite a lot of challenges however relished the prospect to achieve robust environments.
So here is a glance again on some images over the many years, courtesy of Mark Shearman.
Nineteen Seventies
Eighties
Nineties
2000s
2010s
