Posted: January 20, 2006

Athletics: Skipping Indoors, Webb Headed Instead For International Cross Country

From David Monti

© 2005 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

Exactly five years to the day after Alan Webb became the first U.S. high school athlete to break four minutes for the mile indoors, he boarded a plane to head off in a radically different direction: international cross country.

The 23 year-old Reston, Va., athlete left today to do two races in Spain, the first time he will have run cross country in Europe. His first race is on Sunday in the 18th Cross Internacional Ciudad de Valladolid, and the second will be a week later in the 23rd Cross Ciudad de Haro. He is expected to face top athletes like six-time European Cross Country champion, Sergey Lebid of Ukraine, and four-time individual medalist at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships, Gebre Gebremariam of Ethiopia.

In an exclusive telephone interview with Race Results Weekly yesterday from his home, Webb said that he was using these races to prepare himself for the 4-K event at the 2006 USA Cross Country Championships next month in New York City, and to build strength for his outdoor season on the track.

"I've used cross country my whole career to get stronger for my track season," said Webb. "In the short term, to get me ready for U.S Cross Country. Last year I didn't have any cross country races before (the USA Championships), and I think that hurt me." He then added: "This is my tune up for New York."

At last year's USA Cross Country Championships, Webb finished sixth in the 4-K on the first day of the two-day competition, but did not finish the 12-K the following day, stepping off the course at only 5 kilometers. In 2004 he finished eighth in the 4-K and fourth in the 12-K. Even though he qualified to make the national teams both years for the IAAF World Cross Country Championships, he declined selection, and he's leaning that way this year, too.

"For now, it's a 90% chance I'm not going to do it," said Webb citing both the long trip to Japan and the late date for the meet in 2006 (April 1 and 2) which is "chipping away at the outdoor season," he said.

And unlike the last two seasons, Webb will not be running indoors at all, skipping both the U.S. Indoor Championships and the IAAF World Indoor Championships. Webb, and his coach Scott Raczko, decided that in order for him to be as prepared as possible for the national cross country meet --his primary first quarter goal-- he needed to skip running indoors, citing the incompatibility of the training.

"This is totally a planned thing," Webb explained. "We decided this a while ago that we wouldn't do any indoors this year. I'm not going to loose anything by not doing indoors. I don't think I'm missing out on anything. It's a long term thing; there's always time to do stuff. If I do something, I want to go after it. I'm starting to pick and choose more selectively."

With no major outdoor championship for Webb this summer (the World Cup comes in September at the end of the season), Webb has decided to focus on the European circuit where he can run fast.

"Basically, I'm putting my eggs into the Grand Prix circuit," he said. "My goal for the year is to do the Super Grand Prixes and the Golden Leagues and do those top-tier meets. Those will be my focus. I'll use those for my championship effort. Those are the meets to run fast. This is a better year to really run fast."

Asked if he had been given a preview of the courses he was about to run in Spain, Webb admitted that he hadn't, but didn't appear fazed.

"I don't know anything," he joked saying that he was just up for the gritty head-to-head competition which characterizes cross country. "It doesn't really matter."

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