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Thread: Team selection

  1. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by Travs View Post

    So the simple question is... do you pick a team that is fully representative of the fellrunning ability in your county/country, or do you go for the fastest team available on the day?

    I suspect there is no single or simple answer to this, but interested to see the views of those on here who i know have been involved in team selections...
    I was International Selection Chairman for a few years. Fell races are unique to Britain so if the race is running up a track to finish on a dam high in the Alps you pick a team who might bring back medals in that sort of event. Not give your fell running mates the chance to wear a nice vest.

    The Intercounties "Fell Race" was set up to provide a slightly more rugged experience than standard cross country races (ie running round a park) for runners from, say, Kent or London. So it would be stupid of the FRA to design Wasdale type courses. Having said that, races straight from the Calendar have been used, such as Settle Hills, without complaint.

    Presumably selectors would apply the same criteria ie match runners to the course - if their purpose is to win medals.
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  2. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mark G View Post
    Selection could pick some of the finest athletes on the planet but unless they can navigate their way around a mountain course in foul conditions they aren't fell runners and fell running championships should require the full range of skills and abilities needed. Otherwise we could make our races 100m long on a marked flat field and invite Usain Bolt to participate.
    I have often said it would be great to have the inter-counties over a Lakeland Classics course, or a Welsh monster... never going to happen though unfortunately.
    Last edited by Travs; 31-10-2020 at 06:12 PM.

  3. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Graham Breeze View Post

    The Intercounties "Fell Race" was set up to provide a slightly more rugged experience than standard cross country races (ie running round a park) for runners from, say, Kent or London. So it would be stupid of the FRA to design Wasdale type courses. Having said that, races straight from the Calendar have been used, such as Settle Hills, without complaint.

    That is very interesting...

    Given the usual perception of the fell running community to shun away from publicity, etc, i'd have expected the inter-counties was to provide a genuine tough fell test and see who is the best county, regardless of whether Kent/London/etc can get round it or not.

    Given that an inter-counties field is usually of a very high level (in athletic competence, if not always mountain-craft), it's a wonder why they don't pick the hardest courses.

    Ok, Wasdale/Ennerdale/Peris probably aren't going to be picked, you'd expect a medium distance course to appeal to most types of fellrunners... but i see no reason why it couldn't be something like Buttermere Sailbeck or Coniston (in fact didn't the Sailbeck race grow out of the old Northern Counties Champs race?)

  4. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by Travs View Post
    That is very interesting...

    Given the usual perception of the fell running community to shun away from publicity, etc, i'd have expected the inter-counties was to provide a genuine tough fell test and see who is the best county, regardless of whether Kent/London/etc can get round it or not.

    Given that an inter-counties field is usually of a very high level (in athletic competence, if not always mountain-craft), it's a wonder why they don't pick the hardest courses.

    Ok, Wasdale/Ennerdale/Peris probably aren't going to be picked, you'd expect a medium distance course to appeal to most types of fellrunners... but i see no reason why it couldn't be something like Buttermere Sailbeck or Coniston (in fact didn't the Sailbeck race grow out of the old Northern Counties Champs race?)
    But Travs all that would do is give runners from Yorkshire and other typical UK "fell counties" the opportunity to show how much better they are than runners from Devon, Hampshire - which are counties as well - in fell races.

    Yes the first one (1997) was Buttermere Sailbeck, it was held in poor weather and, as I say in Spring 2016 Fellrunner page 38, this was a surprisingly tough choice for a pilot event and one I don't think has been repeated.

    The events were set up for the UK Counties Athletics Union and that title suggests the sort of event the customer (which was not the FRA) wanted.
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  5. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Graham Breeze View Post
    But Travs all that would do is give runners from Yorkshire and other typical UK "fell counties" the opportunity to show how much better they are than runners from Devon, Hampshire - which are counties as well - in fell races.


    That's a very fair point, one i totally understand... but that's the cold hard truth of it, fellracing is predominantly a regional sport due to the geographical nature of the UK, and consequently Cumbria/Yorkshire/Shropshire/Gwynedd/etc have a huge advantage... do we dilute the fell-racing challenge to give Devon/Hampshire/Warwickshire a "chance".... or do we ask them to step up to the plate if they think they're up to it?

    Nobody is forcing the "lesser" counties to compete. After all there's the inter-counties cross-country which gets a huge turnout from all areas.

    I'm not really complaining about the current situation... it's a great privilege for me to try and select a team (although possibly more a case if i don't do it, who will!).....
    Last edited by Travs; 31-10-2020 at 07:11 PM.

  6. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by Travs View Post
    That's a very fair point, one i totally understand... but that's the cold hard truth of it, fellracing is predominantly a regional sport due to the geographical nature of the UK, and consequently Cumbria/Yorkshire/Shropshire/Gwynedd/etc have a huge advantage... do we dilute the fell-racing challenge to give Devon/Hampshire/Warwickshire a "chance".... or do we ask them to step up to the plate if they think they're up to it?

    Nobody is forcing the "lesser" counties to compete. After all there's the inter-counties cross-country which gets a huge turnout from all areas.

    I'm not really complaining about the current situation... it's a great privilege for me to try and select a team (although possibly more a case if i don't do it, who will!).....
    Well perhaps if it had been called "Off-Road" everyone would have been happier!
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  7. #17
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    A personal view (and therefore doesn't deal with Graham's point about who the "customer" was):-

    If the Inter-Counties had been started while I was racing reasonably regularly on the fells, I would have relished the opportunity to represent Leicestershire, or one of the counties in which I had resided previously: Essex, Berkshire, Cambridgeshire. And I would have had a good chance of getting into the team for one of these renowned fell-running counties.. I would then have been hugely disappointed if I had travelled a long distance to Cumbria or Yorkshire, only to run round a boring Category B course.

    Edit: and I wouldn't have been at all upset when my team from the lowlands was unable to provide any serious competition to the Northern counties.
    Last edited by anthonykay; 31-10-2020 at 07:49 PM.
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  8. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by Graham Breeze View Post
    But Travs all that would do is give runners from Yorkshire and other typical UK "fell counties" the opportunity to show how much better they are than runners from Devon, Hampshire - which are counties as well - in fell races.

    Yes the first one (1997) was Buttermere Sailbeck, it was held in poor weather and, as I say in Spring 2016 Fellrunner page 38, this was a surprisingly tough choice for a pilot event and one I don't think has been repeated.

    The events were set up for the UK Counties Athletics Union and that title suggests the sort of event the customer (which was not the FRA) wanted.
    In fact Graham many counties probably couldn't put a team in. There are plenty of hardcore race and Champs options and it surprises me that there was this pressure always to make every one a CAT AM or AL.
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  9. #19
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    Just a couple of observations/ points

    To the guy who said 'why not make the courses 100m long etc'...well fell running is a sport of many facets and a 2 mile course like Grasmere Guides doesn't require mountaincraft and navigation, nor should it - it's a beast in its own right.

    Similarly races like Snowdon and more traditional fast fell races are beasts in their own right - as are Wasdale, Peris and others.

    I distinctly remember, maybe in 2009, Moel Eilio being the Intercounties Race...that to me is the perfect fell race - AM, fast for an AM, with enough technicality and tricky bits to make some experience very beneficial
    Trying to plod up hills every day slightly faster than the day before

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