“Raising the Standards of European Distance Running”

The IAAF, with the support of the EAA, organised a workshop entitled “Raising the Standards of European Distance Running” on the occasion of the European Cup 10,000m in Antalya, Türkiye on 14 April.

The aim of the workshop was to discuss the problems that Europe faces in trying to match the continuous success of African runners in many distance events and to examine ideas for revitalising distance running in Europe and increasing the competitiveness of European distance runners on the world stage.

Over 60 coaches from several European Member Federations took part in the workshop and were addressed by three speakers.

Robert Hartmann (GER), one of the most competent and experienced sport journalists in Germany, who has a vast knowledge of Kenya and its distance running scene since the early 1970s, opened the workshop with a presentation on the psychological, environmental and social conditions under which the Kenyan runners developed their extraordinary success.

The second speaker was one of the most successful coaches in distance running, Renato Canova (ITA), who used to be an Italian national middle and long distance coach and now advises this weekend's Boston Marathon winner Rita Jeptoo as well as world steeplechase champions Saif Saaed Shaheen (QAT) and Dorcus Inzikuru (UGA).

Canova stressed in his presentation that it is not a problem of Europeans being less talented, but that there is a fundamental problem for European runners and coaches in training methodology and motivation. He gave an overview of his experiences with some of the most successful runners and how he had structured their training and adjusted training loads.

The third speaker was Peter Thompson (GBR). His presentation focused on the statistical analysis of European distance running in the years 2000 to 2005. He pointed out that in some events the Europeans had indeed lost contact with other elite runners, but in others, the situation was still hopeful for Europe. He completed his lecture with some thoughts on a modernised interval system which has been successfully applied in training.