Dear All, you will probably know by now that only the mens' team has been accepted. Accordingly, I wrote the following to the race organiser, Mike Eddleston:
Dear Mike, I was deeply dismayed to learn Pudsey Pacers RC has only been offered an entry for its mens' team. PPRC has entered teams for several years, almost all of which have been mixed. Like many clubs, we have our origins in road running. I have personally devoted countless hours to encourage participation in fell running, especially amongst our female members, who, as we well know, are underrepresented in our sport and often need a good deal of encouragement. Entering mixed teams has made it possible to get women involved. Your decision not to allow mixed team entry makes this so much more difficult. I'd go as far as to say this decision is against the spirit of participation and makes the sport less accessible. Given your decision I felt compelled to enter a womens' team and spent many more hours finding enough female members to make this entry viable. And now you say they can't come. I could send you the commentary on our forum about your initial decision; I dare not imagine what they will say if your decision not to offer them an entry prevails.
Herewith, his response:
Hi Graeme,
Thank you for your email.
I understand the disappointment within your club with the selection decisions and trust you will also understand the difficult decisions we have had to make in reducing the entries received from 192 down to the limit of 150. You have mentioned your own club forum and I do not know if you also followed last months discussions on the FRA forum when the published entry criteria were very publicly debated. Basically this is the British Hill & Fell Relay Championship looking to showcase the best available runners and promote the best competition. This year British Athletics are awarding 4 medal categories - Open Male & Female and V40 Male & Female. Since we can only accommodate 150 teams (Last year there were 211) the difficult decision was made to restrict entry to the 4 medal categories and not offer the discretionary Mixed or V50 cats. I am genuinely sorry that the PPRC female team did not make the "cut" but final selections were made on various criteria including previous entry & performance. I appreciate that my words will not alleviate your immediate concerns but our decision remains unchanged.
Regards
Mike Eddleston, RO
I'd be happy to receive any comments you wish to make and write a further reply and I'd encourage you to use the FRA forum to make you opinions known.
Graeme
