Cardiff Road Race Seminar, photo by Getty for IAAF
Road Race seminar
CARDIFF (GBR): Race organisers, athletes and member federation representatives gathered at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff on Friday for the first IAAF Road Running Seminar. Informs the IAAF. “We need to road test and we need to innovate to encourage more people to take up our sport,” IAAF President Sebastian Coe said in his welcome. “We have to be realistic: road running is the way that we connect in our sport. It’s why we are so keen for there to be a mass race off the back of the elite race at the World Half Marathon Championships.” Moderated by Geoff Wightman, the seminar began with IAAF Competitions Director Paul Hardy outlining the IAAF’s involvement in road running. Sean Wallace Jones, the senior manager of road running at the IAAF, then looked at the past 10 years – and the future – of IAAF Label Road Races. The final hour of the seminar was a round-table discussion between five distance-running greats: Paula Radcliffe, Steve Jones, Tim Hutchings, Jos Hermens and Massimo Magnani. The first topic they discussed was pacemaking and if pacemakers are becoming too prevalent in big city road races. The topic of the sub-two-hour marathon was the most polarising topic to be discussed. Magnani and Hermens both said the mark can be achieved at some point in decades to come although an increasingly scientific approach is required. There was largely a consensus on the topic of championship events still holding legitimacy although Hutchings suggests the marathon should be replaced by the half marathon at the IAAF World Championships.
