Quote Originally Posted by DazTheSlug View Post
Good point

since I only have access to results via this website, I can only go back to 2004 so...

looking at the TOPS Rankings (PowerOf10 as was) for "world class" performances, we find a dearth of athletes having entered the UK All-Time lists since start of 2004:
5k - 2 of 50 (Mo Farah, Andy Baddeley)
10k track - 1 of 51 (Mo Farah)
10k road - 1 of 26 (Mo Farah)
Half Mara - er, none.
Marathon - 2 of 52 (Jon Brown, Thomas Abyu)

without having done the research yet, who wants to bet that I don't find a much more significant proportion of record/close-to-record performances in long-established/same-route fell races...?

[even allowing for the fact that in some years conditions will have made close-to-record performances impossible on some courses]

Interesting findings one thing i would consider though is the huge increase in number of those competing in fell running, in the 70's n 80's it was a much smaller field more limited in terms of geography. Compared with road/track id say number have definatly decreased, so with the to sides of the sport going in opposite direction in terms of growth you'd expect more people to be gettin closer to records?