Ontario university coaches vote to increase women’s cross-country distance

Ontario University Athletics (OUA) cross-country coaches have voted to move the women’s race distance to 8K in 2017 and 2018. Whether or not male and female race distances will be equalized in 2019 is something that will be decided upon later says Queen’s University head coach, Steve Boyd. This comes during a time when the distance gap between men and women continues to be a hot topic in Canadian cross-country.

“My motion was to go to 8K in 2017 and 10K in 2018 but there will be an expert committee to review whether we equalize at 8K or 10K in 2019,” Boyd told Canadian Running on Sunday at the provincial university cross-country championships.

The question to be answered by 2019 is whether men and women race 8K or 10K. Currently, women race 6K at the university level and men race 10K. If the final decision is 8K, the men will race a lesser distance in 2019. If the final decision is 10K, women will have moved up 4K in the span of three calendar years.

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Boyd says that it’s official that the changes will come into effect for the 2017 OUA Cross-Country Championships. The event serves as the provincial championships for university runners before nationals, the highest level of university competition in Canada.

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The decision was first reported on by Queen’s University cross-country assistant coach Brant Stachel.

https://twitter.com/brantstachel/status/792527093699608576

The topic of whether men and women should race equal distances has been continually discussed since 2015 when coaches voted down equaling distances at the national university level. The expert committee, which is not yet decided, will “inform us whether there is any reason not to go to 10K,” according to Boyd.