Posted: March 17, 2006

Athletics: Final Entry Deadline Approaches For Fukuoka

Monte-Carlo - The final IAAF Cross Country Permit Meeting of the 2005/2006 season takes place on Sunday (19) in Chiba, Japan, and with the deadline for final entries being reached the following day, between 65 to 70 IAAF Member Federations are set to be represented at the 34th edition of the IAAF World Cross Country Championships, Fukuoka, Japan (1 – 2 April).

The World Cross Country Championships are the oldest IAAF World Athletics Series event, and after undergoing a change to a two-day format in 1998 with the introduction of senior short course races, in 2007 when the championships are staged in Kenya, they will go back to their original four-race scenario (one senior men’s and one senior women’s race, and as well as junior competitions for both sexes).

So this year’s championships in Fukuoka, a city of over a million inhabitants which held the IAAF Grand Prix Final in 1997, mark a significant moment in distance running history. Only one man, Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele (2002, 03, 04, 05), and two women, Ireland’s Sonia O’Sullivan (98) and Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba (05) have so far managed to successfully double at both distances.

The prize money being awarded by the IAAF is again substantial with a total of $560,000 on offer to those individuals and teams who finish in the top-6 positions in the senior races. There is no prize money for juniors.

Individual (US$)
1st $30,000
2nd 15,000
3rd 10,000
4th 7,000
5th 5,000
6th 3,000

Teams (US$)
1st $20,000
2nd 16,000
3rd 12,000
4th 10,000
5th 8,000
6th 4,000

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