Edinburgh WXC logo (© c)
MonteCarlo The 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships, Edinburgh, Scotland which takes place on 30 March 2008, looks to be heading for the greatest ever participation in the history of this the oldest of the IAAF World Athletics Series competitions.
Edinburgh 2008 has attracted 78 IAAF Member Federations to make preliminary entries for the event.
The championships which have a history dating back to 1903, and which first came under the banner of the World Cross Country Championships as an official IAAF event in 1973, have an existing participation record of 76 nations which was set at the 2000 edition in Vilamoura, Portugal.
Another three hosts, Turin 1997, Brussels 2004, and St-Etienne/St-Galmier 2005, share the honour of having attracted the second highest national participation with 72 countries at each of those editions.
The Final Entry Deadline for the 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships is 17 March 2008 (midnight, Monaco time).
In total, the IAAF Member Federation of Great Britain and Northern Ireland have held the IAAF World Cross Country Championships on five previous occasions - Chepstow (1976), Glasgow (1978), Gateshead (1983), Durham (1995), and Belfast (1999).
The venue for the 2008 championships is Holyrood Park that so successfully hosted the European Cross Country Championships in 2003, and has been the venue for many editions of the Great Edinburgh International Cross Country Race, which is an IAAF XC Permit meeting.
IAAF
