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December 2009
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IAAF Cross Country Permit Series set for kick-off in Oeiras |
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19.11.2009 |
The IAAF Cross Country Permit Series 2009-10 kicks off this weekend on 21 November in Portugal with the Cross Internacional de Oeiras in the southern coastal city of Oeiras. The series of 12 individual meetings will conclude in Portugal with the 33rd Almond Blossom Cross in Albufeira on Sunday 7 March 2010.
The international season will culminate three weeks later at the 38th IAAF World Cross Country Championships, Bydgoszcz, Poland, on Sunday 28 March 2010. The oldest IAAF World Athletics Series event will go back to Poland 22 years after the capital city of Warsaw hosted the event in 1987.
The annual IAAF Cross Country Permit series and the World Cross Country Championships were first celebrated under the IAAF banner in 1973. Along with the SPAR European Cross Country Championships, the World Cross Country Championships represents the pinnacle of long distance running competitions over variable terrain.
The 2009-10 series will witness the return of multiple world champions Kenenisa Bekele and Tirunesh Dibaba, who missed the last season due to a combination of injury and illness.
Defending Cross Country world champions Gebre Gebremariam of Ethopia and Kenyan Florence Kiplagat however will not make it easy for the returning champions.
Bekele demonstrated sublime form on the track in Berlin, becoming the first man ever to win the 5000m and 10000m double at the World Championships. Dibaba, meanwhile, sped to a 15km world record on the roads in Nijmegen, Netherlands, last week.
With the major Cross Country players of the past decade back on form and ready to take on all challengers, Cross Country fans can be assured of an exciting season of permit races.
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