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Santa running by Freepic

Can Santa Save Athletics?

runABC writer shares his Christmas wishes in a letter to Santa...

Dear Santa

I know you are jolly busy at the moment, with an estimated 900 million children to deliver presents to within just 42 hours taking into account all the different time zones, crossing the international date line and the variations in sunset and sunrise times but could I request a few extra gifts on behalf of the sport I love?

You see, my passion is athletics in general and running in particular. I have seen first-hand the transformative effect that the discipline, dedication and enjoyment of training and racing can have on many of those young people you will be delivering gifts to this Christmas. But those young people need role models to emulate. They need clubs to join, facilities and equipment to use, coaches to teach them the necessary skills, and affordable kit to wear.

As a fellow runner, Santa, can you use your considerable influence to end the spiralling cost of the technology war between global shoe manufacturers so all runners can benefit from these advances? Running is a beautifully simple sport and races should not become handicap events for those who are, quite literally, less well-heeled than others. Surely, someone can invent a pair of playing field levelling 'pogo pumps' retailing for less than a hundred quid?

Could you deliver a world record for the 2024 BBC Sports Personality of the Year, Keely Hodgkinson? The Olympic 800m champion at 22 years old is a fantastic role model with some brilliant ideas to take our sport forward, starting with the Keely Klassic Indoor Athletics Meeting at the Utilita Arena, Birmingham on Saturday 15 February 2025 when she will attack the world indoor 800m record held by Jolanda Ceplak (1:55.82).

Our only current individual World Athletics record holders are Elliot Giles in the road mile (3:51.3) this year; Mo Farah with 21,330m for the one-hour track run set in 2020 and Jonathan Edwards in the triple jump (18.29 metres) held for almost 30 years! I believe an indoor world record for Hodgkinson would be the ideal springboard for a tilt at Jarmila Kratochvilova's legendary 800m outdoor record of 1:53.28 in 1983.

Perhaps you could also ask the Elves at the North Pole to get behind Lord Seb Coe's bid to become the next president of the International Olympic Committee in March. The historic IOC needs progressive leadership at this time of great challenges and change in our sport and Coe would be the first-ever British president. He is the World Athletics president and did a superb job with the London 2012 Olympics.

You may recall, Santa, that I'm your greatest fan and in 2021, I explained to runABC readers that you are real and can work miracles, so perhaps you could add these few wishes to your list on behalf of approximately seven million runners in the UK. Thanks, Santa.

Merry Christmas everybody!

Santa image courtesy of Freepic

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