Seb Coe calls for more Euro nations to support the World Cross

World Athletics president says “cross country, properly used in the modern training regimen, is an ageless and timeless concept” at pre-champs press conference in Belgrade

On the eve of the World Cross Country Championships in Belgrade, only five countries have proudly competed at every meeting since the modern event began in 1973. United States, Britain, Spain, France and Italy are part of an exclusive club of ever-presents but that number is set to fall to four nations this weekend due to Italy not sending any athletes to the Serbian capital.

Ironically, an Italian athlete, Paola Pigni, won the first two women’s world cross-country titles in 1973 and 1974. There will be no athletes in Belgrade from Finland either, who claimed the first-ever men’s crown in ’73 courtesy of Pekka Päivärinta.

Times have changed. An incredible 85% of the line-ups at the 1973 event in Belgium were from Europe with just 7.7% from Africa and no athletes at all from continents like Asia and South America. In contrast, last year’s championships in Australia, consisted of 34.8% Africans and only 11.3% Europeans, with 15.2% from North America, 23.5% from Oceania, 12.4% from Asia and 1.8% from South America.

“We’ve got work to do – there’s no doubt about that,” said Coe at Friday’s pre-event press conference in Belgrade’s Old Court Palace. “Africa consistently support these championships. But I’d like to see more of our European nations supporting and travelling to these championships. And that’s not just because they are our championships but it’s because I’ve always genuinely believed that cross country, properly used in the modern training regimen, is an ageless and timeless concept.”

Coe was asked the question about the health of the event by letsrun.com, who, like AW, do their best to support the event with coverage. Coe added: “So, there’s work to do, but it’s an important property and it has an historic place in the athletics landscape.”

Italy and Finland aside, there are also no-shows this weekend from Germany, Belgium, Turkey, Austria, Croatia, Denmark, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal and Switzerland among others. The solitary Dutch entrant, Sifan Hassan, has withdrawn, while Norway’s only competitor is three-time European champion Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal. This is despite the championships being held in Europe.

Fellow athletes having a focus on training camps at this time of year, Grøvdal suggests, is one of the reasons more of her fellow Norwegian athletes aren’t in Belgrade. Jakob Ingebrigtsen, for example, is in Flagstaff, Arizona, preparing for the summer track season.

In recent days a vintage video recording of the 1984 World Cross Country Championships in the United States did the rounds on social media as it was the 40^th anniversary of the race. Carlos Lopes of Portugal stormed to victory ahead of England’s Tim Hutchings and Welshman Steve Jones – in those days the home countries competed separately instead of a GB & NI team – with Pat Porter of the United States fourth. Wilson Waigwa of Kenya was the leading African in fifth, however, with Ethiopia winning the men’s team title.

One reason athletes will give for skipping this weekend’s championships is that they want to focus on the Olympics. But the men’s winner in 1984, Lopes, plus the women’s champion, Maricica Puica of Romania, went on to win the Olympic titles in Los Angeles a few months later in the marathon and 3000m respectively.

The next World Cross is in Tallahassee, United States, in January 2026. Traditionalists might shirk at the event being held shortly after Christmas but perhaps it might attract more runners as it will mean the cross-country season is wrapped up effectively before the indoor season gets going.

Coe talked on Friday about “the coherence of a calendar being really important” and working with European Athletics to create a “critical mass of cross-country running” in the December to January period.

“There needs to be,” he added, “a greater understanding and rhythm to the season for fans around the world.”

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With temperatures in Belgrade unseasonably warm ahead of Saturday’s race, holding an event in January might make most events a little cooler, too.

Coe said: “The big challenge for all global sports right now is staging events in a sensible and sequenced way and doing it in a way which is changing climactically by the year – and probably posing more problems in future as governments are not grasping the challenge as they should – so this is a challenge that myself and my successors are going to be dealing with for a long time.”

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