Ballot Paper Arrives

[Routemaster]

I'm becoming more and more convinced that disaffiliation is the way forward. The arguments for a NO on the forum have been well put(mostly). Is there anyone out there who can give a positive reason for staying with UKA?

[wycoller]

Fell running will never be a 'junior sport' as such. All good young runners want to run firstly on the track and the country to a certain extent. If you look at the top 'young' fell runners almost to a man/woman they focus on track or country or triathlon first. Once they've 'maxed out' in these areas they may focus on fell running at a later stage but probably after road running. You only have to look at Roadrunner, Oxo, Bisto etc. much as they love the fells they know there is more medal opportunity/recogniton/money on the track and roads.

I don't see why this will ever change or why we want it to? Thus the worry about funding for juniors is misplaced and fell running in my opinion will always be an 'older persons' sport.

Keep it simple, keep it cheap, keep it run by people who love the sport and have the sports best interests at heart.

Was trying to stay out of this debate but...

I strongly disagree that juniors favour track and field or cross country over fell. My personal experience as a parent and club chairman is that a number of youngsters prefer fell if they live in a fell running area.

My view is that youngsters are best exposed to all disciplines and shouldn't be encouraged to specialise until at least their mid teens. The only problem seems to be stopping some of them running on the track on a Saturday and on the fell on the Sunday!

[Bladerunner]

Wycoller do you think the 'top' runners who do different disciplines favour fell, for instance does Alistair Brownlee favour fell over triathlon or Josh Moody fell over 800m/1500m? I know lots of youngsters do lots of disciplines but I'm not sure we need to be financing them doing fell, I mean all they need is a hill isn't it, no warm weather training for the hardy youngsters ;-)

[SteveT]

Is there anyone out there who can give a positive reason for staying with UKA?

Well there are at least 11 who should be able to...

[Yorkshire Thug]

WRT my “grunt”.

FRA’s current junior training is excellent, and there are a lot of junior’s getting a lot out of it, and taking up an interest in what is often thought of as an “old man’s sport".

I think we should remember these young people when we are considering the future.

Although it shouldn’t affect whether we should disaffiliate or not, we should simply accept that the FRA ought to try to maintain its current exemplary contribution to junior fellrunning, whatever the outcome.

As oppose to the suggestion from Baldy that we can simply ditch them,

[Baldy]

WRT my “grunt”.

As oppose to the suggestion from Baldy that we can simply ditch them,

YT,

Kindly don't misquote me. I didn't make any suggestion about the FRA ditching juniors.

[Yorkshire Thug]

Yo Baldy

I didn't quote or misquote you.

But what you said was tanatamount to ditching.

The FRA currently provides much more than competition and it should continue to do so whether it stays or leaves.

No doubt you have enormous experience of training juniors at Stockport, but, as far as I'm aware, Stockport features pretty minimally on the fellrunning scene. Perhaps you are unaware of the FRA's efforts in this area?

YT

[Wheeze]

Lets vote to keep incontinent outbursts and personally directed comments out of this otherwise useful debate. Any one wanna poll?

[Rudolph Hooker]

Lets vote to keep incontinent outbursts and personally directed comments out of this otherwise useful debate. Any one wanna poll?

I quite agree. Although when you choose a monicker like Baldy, almost anything will sound rude, won't it.

Baldy should have picked a nice name, like mine.

[Britta]

OK, this is a brainstorm only, cause i've just come accross another article about Keswick securing 'the Commonwealth fell and mountain running event'.

Could it be that this would make us want to keep ties with UKA??

NOT cause we want the extra publicity & glitz & increased numbers on the fells, but cause we want to control them...!!! Would there be a day when environmental impact will need to be limited due to more people taking up the sport than the fells can cater for, whether we like it or not?

Or would the FRA not have any involvement/control anyway???

Someone posted earlier that this is ages away, but 2009 seems pretty close to me...

But if landowners get p****d off due to too many folk training/running through their land & others get twitchy about erosion, could that not threaten races???