Mud, Water, Sand, Wooden Barriers Ramp Up The Difficulty Of Apalachee Regional Park Course

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

TALLAHASSEE -- The course at Apalachee Regiponal Park isn't the usual layout seen by thousands of Florida high school runners or even the collegians who have run at the NCAA Championships here. 

The features in place for Saturday's World Athletics Cross Country Championships are perhaps unlike any other in the history of the event. Yes, there has usually been some creativity woven into the course for a World Championships, but Florida-themed amusement park-type features in place at APR should make for some compelling viewing and will require some tough running. 

The mud section, in particular, looks like something you wouldn't steer a vehicle into without four-wheel drive. 

The wooden barriers that comprise "Alligator Alley" are intricately detailed with art but they get successively higher as you move through them. 

The water is pond that appears to be dyed blue and there is no indication from looking at it how deep it might be. Perhaps knee-deep?

And sandy section could serve to break up the rhythm of runners, but doesn't appear too difficult. 

Australian Jessica Hull didn't even have to pause when asked at Friday's press conference which of the features concerned her the post. 

"I think the mud, because of where it is at the top of that hill," she said. "Your quads are going to be burning when you get to the top of that hill and then you've got to go through the mud pit. I think if you're trying use your power you're going to double hit your quads there, and then you're going to slam it downhill."

Hull will only have to get through the mud and other features once as a part of the 4x2000m mixed relay. 

The senior men and women will have to deal with everything on the 2-kilometer course five times. 

Jimmy Gressier of France, who narrowly won the world title in the 10,000 meters in Tokyo in September, hadn't yet toured the course. He has come back to the World Cross Country Championships in order to do something special with his team and to redeem himself from his last appearance in the meet in 2015. As a junior (U20) athlete, he finished 80th in Guiyang, China. 

Gressier has competed in numerous European Cross Country Championships, including a second-place finish last month in Portugal. 

Asked about whether he had planned any post-race victory celebration, Gressier declined to answer, saying in French that he had many difficult "customers" to deal with first. 

The most difficult, of course, would be Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda, the two-time defending champion. Kiplimo was originally listed as one of the four athletes due to take part in the press conference but did show on Friday. 

U.S. women's champion Weini Kelati had considered leaving cross country behind to remain focused on her ambitions to move in distance, stick the roads, and get into the marathon. 

But the lure of a World Cross Championships in the U.S. was too much to pass up. 

Kelati was the top U.S. finisher, 14th, two years ago at the meet in Belgrade, Serbia. 

She's aiming for something better on Saturday. 

"I'll give myself a shot to finish as high as possible to help the team and improve the result I got two years ago," she said.