The 2007 to 2008 IAAF Cross Country season Begins
There are eleven individual meetings that comprise the calendar of the IAAF's Cross Country Permit Series 2007-2008, and they begin this November 17, 2007 in Oeiras, Portugal, and concludes in Fukuoka, Japan, on the 2nd of March next year. But it doesn't end there. This particular series will find its culmination with the 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships, which take place in Edinburgh, Scotland four weeks later, on the thirtieth of March, 2008.
Truth be told, the IAAF member Federation of Great Britain and Northern Ireland have hosted the World Cross Country Championships on five prior occasions, in the cities of Chepstow (1976), Gateshead (1983), Durham (1995), in England, with Belfast in Northern Ireland (1999) and Glasgow, Scotland (1978).
With regards to the story of the 2006/2007 cross country season in Mombasa, Zersenay Tadase of Eritrea triumphed with a blast, as he ended the consecutive five-year string of championships made by Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele.
The loss didn't dampen Bekele's competitive spirit though. He bounced back from last summer and took the World 10,000 m track title, his third. He also announced that he intends to participate in the Great Edinburgh International Cross Country on the twelfth of January, 2008 to face Tadase again. The Gread Edinburgh International Cross Country will take place in Holyrood Park, and will be the fifth of the above-mentioned eleven permit meetings in the 2007/2008 IAAF series.
Incidentally, the first IAAF meeting in Oeiras this Saturday also serves one of the national selection races for the Portugese team for the European Cross Country Championships. Similarly, it will also be the case for the Spanish athletes when the second IAAF meeting occurs in Soria, Spain on the 25th of November this year.
