The first is that the sport isn't clean. There are athletes who are doping and not getting caught. As you will have seen from the ongoing Russian controversy, some of this was almost on an industrial scale.
The second is that African athletes are competing for European countries for money and have no connection with those countries. e.g. all those Kenyan athletes competing for Turkey.
In December, Athletics Illustrated outlined the urgency of the problem is this article...
http://athleticsillustrated.com/editorial/the-death-of-cross-country/
In another article on The42 website which appeared last weekend, Fionnuala McCormack outlines her frustration with the current situation.
Here is a short quote from the article...
“The questions I want to ask are how do they improve by two minutes over 10k in one year? To me that’s the massive problem. It’s kind of glossed over by the fact people are changing country but that has been happening for years and it’s turned into a complete farce really.
“In a way I wonder why other people don’t talk about it and I wonder if it is better to keep the mouth shut. That’s not really what we’re there for but it is the athletes who have to say something at some point.”
You can read the full article here... http://www.the42.ie/fionnuala-mccormack-interview-3179925-Jan2017/
The turks have no scruples and the liberals make it hard to complain without being called a racist. It's sad my 8 year old daughter who loves running xc will have her potential to achieve anything at that level scuppered before she even starts.
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