When is running a team sport?
Kirwa wants improvements
You may say, relay running, Cup events, but cross country? Well this how Kenyan World XC coach Julius Kirwa sees it. Following Moses Mosop’s convincing win at the weekend he wants more ‘team drill’ come the World Cross Country Championships in Amman next month.
Kirwa said
I didn’t expect such big differences in the finishing times as it has happened in the 12km race. The big difference suggests that there was no team work amongst the athletes and this is an important aspect in championships.
Or is it? Endurance running is an individual sport, we are not normally reliant on other team members during competition. However, I feel that Kirwa is alluding to the drubbing that the Kenyan team got at the hands of the Ethiopians last March. In Kirwa’s eyes this cannot happen again, and he wishes to see the Kenyan team back where they belong – on top.
Mosop - ran to win
Running can be a team sport, but it is only when there is a team ethic instilled in a close-knit squad that this will work (just look at the Mick Woods / AFD girls teams as an example). Many Kenyan athletes are now international runners, they train in groups for sure, but when you see them run they are individuals, they run freely, there is a love of their nation, but in my view not a love of the team race – and I am not sure that you can drill that out of them in a short space of time during a winter of cross country. I could well be wrong and we wish Kirwa and his crack squad well at the 2009 champs.
