Many years ago, BBC Grandstand showed two cross country events each autumn – the Gateshead International and the IAC event from Crystal Palace. These gave a welcome break from the usual sporting diet of horse racing, rugby league and wrestling! The events attracted the top stars of the day – in the late 1970s it was the likes of Brendan Foster (yes, he could run a bit in his day before he put on a pound or two), Tony Simmons and Bernie Ford, followed in the 1980s by the likes of Tim Hutchings and Steve Jones. Now the BBC only seems to show events organised by Brendan Foster but that is another story!
The Gateshead course was famous for its punishing hills but over time these events disappeared from the calendar. However, it is good to see that over the past year or so the Gateshead event has been revived and now forms part of the UK Cross Challenge. This took place last weekend and Keith Gerrard had an excellent run finishing 6th overall and 4th British runner.
Things look promising for him for the European Cross Trials to be held in Liverpool on 29th November – less than two weeks away. The European Cross is due to be held in Brussels and myself, Dave Newton and Dave Ronan have booked to go to watch so hopefully Keith will be there as well so we can cheer him on.
As well the challenge of achieving selection for this event, Keith’s other challenge will be to maintain his form through to the main events of the winter and in particular the World Cross Trial/Inter Counties in March. He sometimes seems to fade away in the second half of the winter. Hopefully he will judge his season better this year.
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