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14 Euro Cross 8-page special news

6 Ian Stewart’s Euro Cross verdict 7 Hayley Yelling’s future plans 8 Exhausted Farah gracious in defeat 10 How to qualify for Barcelona 2010 11 Jessica Ennis third in BBC vote features

24 Moments of the Noughties, No.6 25 AW writer traces illuminous history 29 An Ethiopian endurance adventure performance

33 Festive training advice 34 Coaching ‘hierarchy’ methods 36 Finnish endurance conference 38 Mike East and Charlie Spedding speak 40 Gender equality in training? 42 Training at the right pace events

44 Results round-up 53 What’s On – fixtures listings regulars

12 Rising Stars 22 Your Say 26 Comment – the Olympic legacy 62 Official Line – Tom Crick

Cover: Hayley Yelling in Dublin last weekend (Mark Shearman) and Lisa Dobriskey and Ricky Soos tie the knot (Job King)

Mark Shearman

European Cross Country Champs: page 14

Irish therapist Gerard Hartmann uses his healing hands on an eye-opening visit to Ethiopia 29

Finnish conference discusses how to train young talent 36

ED I T OR ’ S LET TER

Why running wins popularity contest

THE eternal attraction of putting one foot in front of the other at faster than walking pace was illustrated in an article in the Telegraph last month entitled “Americans run off the recession in record numbers”.

As a pastime, running is cheap and easy to do and the latest “running boom” has seen around 9.2 million people complete certified races in the United States in 2008, up from 3.7 million in 1987.

Following this, in recent days a few things have reminded me of the article – firstly, Eddie Izzard’s obvious love of running was a fascinating feature of the BBC Sports Personality Awards on Sunday.

Our cover star for this issue is a European crosscountry champion who tried retirement but then realised she enjoyed running too much to stop.

Meanwhile elsewhere in this issue, Olympic 5000m and 10,000m champion Tirunesh Dibaba says she will “always run”, even when she retires – a sentiment our own Paula Radcliffe has often shared.

 ONCE again, Britain confirmed it is the strongest cross-country nation in Europe by dominating the medals table in Dublin last weekend.

With 12 medals, including three golds, the

GB squad finished comfortably ahead of its nearest rival, France, who won five medals in total.

Germany and Italy, meanwhile, look to have almost given up when it comes to distance running.

Sadly, the countries that have produced Olympic champions such as Gelindo Bordin, Alberto Cova and Dieter Baumann only managed to snatch a couple of bronze medals between them.

 FINALLY, I have never been a fan of treadmill running, but the news that Haile Gebrselassie regularly uses one has swayed my opinion.

AW’s roving reporter in Ethiopia, Ger Keane, reveals on pages 29-31 that the Ethiopian legend often steps on a treadmill for his second run of the day, cranks the level up to top speed and blasts out a 40 to 60-minute efffort.

He does this to “protect his fragile ankles and focus on technique” – and, among other things, it has led to a 2:03:59 marathon world record.

Jason Henderson, Editor

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