Few people forget their cross-country school days, trudging across murky playing fields on frigid winter afternoons, invariably dressed in gear obtained from the lost and found bin.
While park, trail, and marathon running is gaining popularity among the masses, the general public’s appetite for cross-country is nearly absent, likely influenced by those negative connotations of the school day.
At the elite level, he is equally shunned.
“The prestige is not comparable to what I had when I did it,” said Tim Hutchings, the last Briton to win a world cross country medal when he took his second silver in 1989.
“There were several winters where I was among the best cross-country runners in the world and I would go to Europe, win races in Spain, France, Italy, Germany, and it was a very lucrative circuit. It was a very valuable sport and very recognized in its own right. Now, there is just no money in it.”
The lack of financial incentives is critical. British Athletics funding is linked specifically to track and road performances in Olympic and Paralympic disciplines, an important consideration when Keith looks beyond cross country.
UK Sport began distributing National Lottery funds to Olympic and Paralympic sports in May 1997, allocating them according to medal potential. Before that, athletics had been largely amateur until the 1980s, when athletes had to generate their own income if they wanted to become professionals.
Other factors have also influenced cross country’s declining prestige. The dominance of African runners has altered the perception of competitiveness, and no one from outside the continent has stood on the men’s podium at the World Cross Country Championships for more than two decades, or the women’s podium for 12 years.
At both ends of the competitive spectrum, the discipline is largely ignored and unloved but, within its own community of athletics clubs, it remains strong.
More than 5,000 people ran at last year’s English National Cross Country Championships, while the Surrey, Birmingham, Metropolitan and Chiltern Cross Country Leagues regularly host more than 1,500 competitors at their monthly events.
Cross-country courses are all different and distances vary for each event, although a standardized length of 10 km was established at the 2019 World Championships.