Will there be anybody lining up at the Intercounty Junior XC in 10 years???

A few weeks ago I thought it might be 'fun' to analyse the results of the Inter County Junior Cross Country Championships that took place since the AAI came into being. I’m not sure exactly what details I expected to unearth but unfortunately the emerging picture is pretty grim. What was a great championship (rose tinted glasses perhaps) is now in serious decline as can be seen from the bar chart below. At this rate there will be no athletes lining up in 10 years time!!

After 2005 there is a clear step change in the numbers finishing both men’s and women’s races. Since 2005 only an average of 47 men and 26 women have managed to cross the finish line. Prior to 2005 the averages were 71 and 47 respectively (The dip in numbers can be partly explained by the fact that between 2001 and 2005 the U19 and U20 races took place together and these days it is less likely that an U19 will turn up at the Junior Intercounties when they have to run their own age group All Ireland the following week or the week after). That's a ball park average of less than two men per county and less than one woman per county. Zoinks!

To compound the agony the average number of counties managing to field a complete team in both the men’s and women’s categories since 2005 is a paltry three. That’s less than one tenth of the eligible counties. 

With my ‘Cork’ hat on a quick look at the names of the members of Cork junior teams over the last 10 years reveals that 8/10 of the runners who have represented Cork at the Intercounty Juniors go on to participate at various levels in the sport for a number of years afterwards. All of these guys and girls clearly caught ‘the bug’ and are going to stick with the sport no matter what. If we can get more athletes as far as the Intercounty Juniors then maybe we have a shot at keeping them in the sport for a few more years at least…

So, do we accept that we will only filter 50-60 (men and women) into the senior ranks each year or do we try to figure out some way of helping more counties to field teams at the Intercounties?? In other sports there is a great kudos attached to making county teams at young adult level. Would it be that hard to make a fuss over our junior teams? It could start with something as simple as giving them a tracksuit and getting their pictures up on the AAI website etc. Whatever the solution(s) the AAI need to look at getting the participation levels up at this level and we should realistically be looking at getting half the counties in the land to field teams at this championship.

For once in my life I can’t offer (what I think is) an obvious solution to this problem but it is clear that we need to do something quickly to encourage greater participation in what is or should be our flagship junior championship.

It would be very interesting to hear the views of people in their early 20's who drifted away from the sport when they were 16 years of age or so........