Quote Originally Posted by Travs View Post
Wonder if anybody has any views on the lack of participation in fell racing (and general fell running?) from black/Asian/other "minorities" in the UK...?

I know there has been the odd fellrunner from an Asian background, and certainly quite a number of Eastern European names pop up in all sorts of fell races. And the long-distance/ultra races seem to attract a huge variety of nationalities... At the UTS100 i think almost 50% of the nationalities listed were not from the UK, and at the 10 Peaks again last year, a decent number of European names.

Will it ever change? It seems hard enough to attract young English runners to the fells, never mind youngsters where perhaps their culture may not even regard mountain running as a viable consideration.

No issue either way on my part. I guess it's hardly the kind of high-profile sport which will attract people in their thousands out of the cities...
I think you're right to raise it as an issue, both in terms of possibly adding a richer diversity to fellrunning communities, making it appear less exclusive even if it isn't, but particularly in regard to encouraging wider participation in, and appreciation of, sports and physical activities generally that take place on the fells and wilder parts of the UK. This is because the wider the participation - the wider the political power. Currently, we have the CROW Act which has improved (despite room for improvement) access issues compared to what we previously had in the UK, other than in Scotland. But that could all change easily, such as with potential moves to try to monetise access (charging to enter our National Parks, etc.), or other shifts in political policies. If a wider proportion of the UK's population from all communities value free access, then its becomes politically more difficult to backtrack or introduce other restrictive measures.