FEATURE
IF YOU LIKE IT THEN YOU SHOULDA PUT AN
Olympic RING ON IT
(You sung that, didn’t you?)
WITH AN ESTIMATED 20 MILLION PARTICIPANTS SINCE 2010, TRAIL RUNNING HAS BECOME ONE OF THE WORLD’S FASTEST GROWING SPORTS (ACCORDING TO INTERNATIONAL TRACK AND FIELD FEDERATION). WITH THE BASIC REQUIREMENTS ONLY BEING A PAIR OF SHOES AND HAVING THE GREAT OUTDOORS SOMEWHERE CLOSE BY, THERE ARE NOW MORE THAN 25,000 RACES ACROSS 195 COUNTRIES WITH NEARLY 2 MILLION REGISTERED COMPETITORS. SO WITH THE NUMBERS SO LARGE, ISN’T IT TIME WE GET THE SPORT RECOGNISED AT AN OLYMPIC LEVEL? KATE DZIENIS DELVES INTO THE POTENTIAL OF INTRODUCING TRAIL RUNNING TO THE OLYMPICS AND THE PARALYMPICS, AND DISCOVERS A PUSH HAS JUST STARTED, HARD AND FAST, TO GET THE SPORT INTO THE 2032 BRISBANE GAMES. WORDS: KATE DZIENIS IMAGES: JOEP BUIJS, DOMINIC CHAPLIN, ELEMENT PHOTOGRAPHY, DOMINIC MURPHY
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