Short-Course Champs add to busy festive schedule
MANY of Guernsey’s leading UK-based endurance athletes are back in the island ahead of a festive burst of cross-country racing opportunities.
A domestic triple-bill includes not just Sunday’s Boxing Day and New Year’s Day cross-countries at L’Ancresse, but the brand-new Short Course Championships at Delancey on bank holiday Tuesday 28 December. This is all in preparation for a hopeful Hampshire Championships outing near Botley on 8 January.
Although Full Course champion Alex Rowe has been ruled out by Covid, endurance stalwart Paul Ingrouille expects numerous other UK-based runners to lift the quality of such events.
‘We have got so many of our off-island club members, whether working or students, returning to the island, and we will be expecting some quite exciting racing,’ he said.
‘The Boxing Day Full Course has always been a bit of a feature event for local athletes but the Short Course 4k cross-country will be another option and it brings over the shorter-distance athletes as well.’
The Boxing Day Full Course unfolds over 7.6km of mixed terrain in a circumnavigation of L’Ancresse, starting and finishing from Rocque Balan at 11am.
It retains its status as Guernsey’s quintessential cross-country race and has invariably attracted large and high-quality fields.
But a more unknown quantity is the inaugural Short Course Championships.
Three different championships will unfold in quick succession at Delancey, with both men and women tackling 4km in separate races as U11 and U13 athletes compete over 2km.
The idea, as Ingrouille explains, stems from tradition elsewhere and will help bring track athletes into the mix.
‘Scotland, for example, has a very similar style of races that they stage in November... you have middle-distance specialists like Laura Muir going head-to-head with some of the more traditional “mud-plugger” types.’
The New Year’s Day run uses the same course as Boxing Day but operates in handicap fashion, opening the doors for a different winner, while the top athletes view it as a build-up event for Hampshire.
Speaking of the Hampshire Championships, there will be no organised group trip for Guernsey Athletics due to Covid.
But over 20 senior athletes have expressed interest in racing the event after its two-year absence and in doing so extending a long history of Guernsey representation, with the 2020 edition being the only time this century that the men have missed a team medal.
They will therefore be targeting a return to the podium – provided it goes ahead.
‘We can’t really assume anything,’ Ingrouille added.
‘Until it’s officially off, which is really the call of the government, we still have athletes in to compete.
‘As an outdoor event that does not even have a stadium seating area, it’s on the lower end of the risk scale, but UK government decisions may come into play.’
