Play the 2019 "Best-Of-The-Rest" FANTASY WORLD CROSS contest this Saturday, 30 March!

[frankie cahill]

Pleasantly suprised by my results. There were a few "why did'nt I pick..." moments. That's now two consecutive World XC where Brett Robinson has made the top 30, and I was going to pick Genevive Lalonde. Rather smugly pleased that my faith in Fionualla was rewarded. She's still got it! The women's race seemed to be quite in keeping with what you'd expect, but what was going on in the men's race? Robinson and even Soloman have relatively modest pbs, I've never heard of the Spainard or Eritrean/ Swede but again, not outstanding 10k runners. Would things have been different if Europe's best had shown up, or if McSewyn hadn't caught the flu? Perhaps if there had been a few more sub 28 men in the race it would be easier to make some sort of sense of it, but with so many of the runners being solid 28.20-28.30 guys it's hard to tell how dominant the front runners ( specifically those from about 7 to 20) actually were. The Americans, I guess , just can't handle European style XC. Too many golf courses in their legs....

[LuckySpikes]

Hijacking the thread a little for commentary about the World Cross. One thing always surprises me is that the gaps in the field are similar to what you'll see in a local league race. Given the supposed quality of all of the participants nominated by their NGBs, for the winner to be 4 minutes ahead of the 55th runner over a 36 min course (just looking at senior womens) is like running against half-decent club runners. I know XC doesn't necessarily lend itself to massive packing of groups, but rather than the winners being those who are 1-2% better than the best across the rest of the world, they are a clear 10% better. The times that the winners set and the gaps back to many of the other competitors makes the others look like rank amateurs!

I think it could be a function of a few things:

1) Not everyone had their best day.
2) Outside of the Africans, it wasn't a deep field. For example, most of Europe's best were missing. If they'd been there, that difference might have been 3 minutes not 4.
3) A tough cross country course perhaps exaggerates the differences between athletes?
4) At the top-end women's athletics isn't as deep as the men's. In the women's 10,000 many of us will think that sub-32 is the lower reaches of world-class and it's a time aimed for by many women we consider very good. But 31:59 itself is probably about 8% slower than what Obiri could run. And in Rio in 2016 we saw several women running national records around 31:30 but they were lapped twice by Ayana.

[larkim]

Hijacking the thread a little for commentary about the World Cross. One thing always surprises me is that the gaps in the field are similar to what you'll see in a local league race. Given the supposed quality of all of the participants nominated by their NGBs, for the winner to be 4 minutes ahead of the 55th runner over a 36 min course (just looking at senior womens) is like running against half-decent club runners. I know XC doesn't necessarily lend itself to massive packing of groups, but rather than the winners being those who are 1-2% better than the best across the rest of the world, they are a clear 10% better. The times that the winners set and the gaps back to many of the other competitors makes the others look like rank amateurs!

[MBChristie]

I wasn't complaining about the format. I did think it worked, as I had to look at the entire field while making my choices. You could have had separate rounds for the East Africans (Perhaps adding Bdi, Rwa, Tan and Qat).

It probably does make if difficult to predict when most of the form is done on flat tracks and roads and tame crosses. Which was why I chose Frerichs as a steeple-chaser even though she was sixth in the US Trial, where as for the men I went for the trail winner, Kipchirchir. Not that I'm complaining - it's the same for everyone.

No impressed by the Hill though, come and run in the Inverness north of Scotland league race (Mhairi MacLennan's home turf) next season as a guest, and you'll see why.

[LuckySpikes]

The contest results are in!

Women's race

MBChristie - scores 182
15th A E Moller
23 Burkard
34 Nesbitt
35 Brichacek
75 Frerichs
-----------
DNF Gebre

LuckySpikes - scores 222
15 A E Moller
23 Burkard
36 Piasecki
58 Hall
DNF (scores 90) Scott
-----------
DNF Gebre

frankie cahill - scores 197
18 McCormack
23 Burkard
26 Duncan
58 Hall
72 O'Connell
-----------
DNF Scott


Men's race

MBChristie - scores 266
26 Kaya
34 Kipchirchir
51 Hickey
65 Bando
DNS (scores 90) Mokopane
-----------
DNS McSweyn

LuckySpikes - scores 302
34 Kipchirchir
57 Irabaruta
60 H Bor
63 Rayner
88 Geay
-----------
DNS McSweyn

frankie cahill - scores 295
34 Kipchirchir
36 Solomon
62 Tobin
81 Hesselbjerg
82 Linkletter
-----------
DNS McSweyn

OVERALL STANDINGS

GOLD: MBChristie 182 + 266 = 448
SILVER: frankie cahill 197 + 295 = 492
BRONZE: LuckySpikes 222 + 302 = 524

So, a bit of a turnaround from Fantasy Euro Cross - I dropped like a stone from my Gold medal performance in Tilburg and MBChristie & frankie cahill both moved up a step on the podium.

Congratulations to MBChristie!

Thank you for playing. As always, it's fun!

Any feedback on the "Best-Of-The-Rest" format is appreciated for future Fantasy World Cross contests. Did it work well or not?
Was it too "random"? Or was it just a quirk of the particularly difficult course in Aarhus that made it tough to predict accurately?

[LuckySpikes]

Before I compile the contest results, here's the first 15 eligible athletes in each of the Senior races ... just so you can say, "Dammit, I almost picked him/her!"

Women:
15th A E Moller (DEN)
16 Matanga (TAN)
18 McCormack (IRL)
20 Lalonde (CAN)
22 Westphal (FRA)
23 Burkard (GER)
24 Mykhaylova (UKR)
25 Sanchez-Escribano (ESP)
26 Duncan (AUS)
29 Campbell (AUS)
30 Avery (GBR)
32 Maclennan (GBR)
33 Bruce (USA)
34 Nesbitt (GBR)
35 Brichacek (AUS)

Excellent run by Anna Emilie Moller, a very talented 21 year-old (and currently UK-based, studying in London). Fionnuala McCormack took me by surprise, I'd just presumed she was "a bit past it".
The USA had a bit of a shocker - Frerichs, Hall & Schweizer all under-performing.

Men:
9th Ndikumwenayo (BDI)
11 Kwizera (BDI)
14 Nzikwinkunda (BDI)
16 Mashele (RSA)
17 Fsiha (SWE)
20 Oumaiz Errouch (ESP)
26 Kaya (TUR)
30 Robinson (AUS)
32 Panga (TAN)
34 Kipchirchir (USA)
35 Kebenei (USA)
36 Solomon (SWE)
37 Dever (GBR)
39 Ramsden (AUS)
41 Teixeira (POR)

In the men's race we were all sleeping on the Burundians. Well, I wasn't but I picked the wrong one on the day!
Again, I think most people expected more of the Americans.

[LuckySpikes]

Ah, just informed on the broadcast that McSweyn will be a non-starter. Past the closing time so too late to make any changes now, but all 3 of us had him on our teams so it's the same for all of us.

[frankie cahill]

Yes that's them. Ditto the Burundian and Tanzanian athletes you've selected.

[LuckySpikes]

There are at least 3 people on mbchristie's list I've never heard of...This is very worrying. I'm beginning to suspect I don't know half as much about distance running as I thought I did. Sigh.

I'm not familiar with Yuta Bando or Rantso Mokopane but I do know Emily Brichacek - over the years I've seen her running in a few Australian meetings & the Comm Games.

I'm guessing those are the 3 you're referring to?

[frankie cahill]

There are at least 3 people on mbchristie's list I've never heard of...This is very worrying. I'm beginning to suspect I don't know half as much about distance running as I thought I did. Sigh.

[frankie cahill]

Hello been away from the site for a while. Going to jump in at the last minute with a ramshackle team shamelessly copied from the previous entries, bearing in mind my abject failure at the Euros!
Men:
Stewart MCSWEYN ( Aus)
Rory LINKLETTER ( Can)
Ole HESSELBJERG ( Den)
Sean TOBIN ( Ire)
Napoleon SOLOMON ( Swe)
Shadrack KIPCHIRCHIR ( USA)

Women:
Melissa DUNCAN ( Aus)
Jessica O'CONNELL ( Can)
Dominique SCOTT ( RSA)
Elena BURKARD ( Ger)
Fionnuala MCCORMACK ( Ire)
Marielle HALL ( USA)

This team looks good on paper, but as I've selected it they will collapse in the mud.

[LuckySpikes]

Final start lists via https://www.iaaf.org/competitions/ia...imetable/byday

[LuckySpikes]

Men:
McSweyn (AUS)
Irabaruta (BDI)
Rayner (AUS)
Geay (TAN)
Hillary Bor (USA)
Kipchirchir (USA)

Women:
Anna Emilie Moller (DEN)
Gebre (ESP)
Piasecki (GBR)
Burkard (GER)
Scott (RSA)
Hall (USA)

I should mention that in the event of a tied score the scores of your two 6th athletes (i.e., your 2 lowest placed & non-counting athletes) will be totalled and the lowest score wins the tiebreaker. In this case, a DNF/DNS will not be awarded 90 points. For the tiebreaker a contestant with 2 finishing non-counters would automatically beat a contestant with only 1 finishing non-counter.

[MBChristie]

Enjoy reading athletes tweets on how hard the course is. Looking forward to watching it (Junior races live, and seniors on catch up, as I foolishly entered a 10K a 2pm)

Men
McSweyn (Aus)
Hickey (Gbr)
Bando (Jpn)
Mokopane (RSA)
Kaya (Tur)
Kipchirchir (USA)

Women
Brichacek (Aus)
A.E. Moller (Den)
Gebre (Esp)
Nesbit (Gbr)
Burkard (Ger)
Frerichs (USA)

[LuckySpikes]

The more I looked at the entry lists, the more I thought that everyone's teams might be very similar. So, there's a twist - you cannot pick any athletes from Bahrain, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya or Uganda. A side benefit is that it may give contestants more interest in what happens further down the field.

The Rules:
1. Pick 2 teams of 6 athletes - one team of 6 for the Senior Men's race and one team of 6 for the Senior Women's race
2. However, you cannot pick any athletes from Bahrain, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya or Uganda
3. Within each of your 2 teams you are allowed a maximum of 2 athletes from the same country. So, for example, you cannot have more than 2 USA athletes in your Men's team although you could have 2 USA athletes in your men's team and 2 USA athletes in your women's team if you want.

Scoring:
Just like cross-country scoring the lowest score wins. The scores from the men's & women's races will be added to determine the overall Fantasy World Cross winner.

5 athletes count for each of your 2 teams. Should you have 2 or more athletes from a team of 6 who DNS or DNF they will each be awarded a score of 90 so that you can still score a full team.

Supporting Info:
The Men's & Women's races are both 10km. The Women's race starts at midday, the Men's at 1pm.

The entry lists are here - https://media.aws.iaaf.org/competiti...29b06de2f0.pdf - so you can make a start on picking your teams. The start lists will be published by the IAAF on Friday so I suggest you check those start lists to see if your chosen athletes are still competing.

You can edit your team at any time up to the contest closing time below.

The closing time for contest entries is 11.55am on the day of the races, Saturday 30th March.

Good luck, everyone!