Cross Country race - general view (© Getty Images)
MonteCarloThe ten individual meetings which make up the calendar of IAAF Cross Country Permit Series 2008/09 begin next weekend in Oeiras, Portugal, on Saturday 15 November 2008, and conclude in Fukuoka, Japan on Sunday 7 March 2009.
The season will culminate three weeks later with the 37th IAAF World Cross Country Championships, Amman, Jordan, Saturday 28 March 2009.
Amman 2009 will be only the second occasion on which an Asian country has hosted these championships, which are the oldest IAAF World Athletics Series event, first celebrated under the IAAF banner in 1973.
The story of the 2007/08 cross country season was of course the return to success for Kenenisa Bekele and Tirunesh Dibaba after Ethiopia’s near rout at the global title meet in Mombasa, Kenya in March 2007. In fact the 2008 World Cross Country Championships in Edinburgh, saw Ethiopia not just celebrate a return to form but also their country's first ever sweep of the four individual gold medals in the slippery, muddy conditions of the heavily rain and wind swept grass circuit in Scotland.
Come the summer Bekele and Dibaba remained in romping good form, dominating the long distance events on the track at the Beijing Olympics with 5000 and 10,000m doubles, and likewise the winners in Amman are sure to be major players too when Berlin hosts the 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics in August 2009.
The first IAAF Cross Country meeting of the winter in Oeiras this Saturday 15 November, also acts nationally as one of the selection races for the Portuguese team for the 2008 European Cross Country Championships. The same will also be the case for Spanish athletes at the second IAAF permit race in Soria, Spain on Sunday 23 November. The general ambitions of the best runners from across the continent which are directed at those European championships on 14 December 2008 in Brussels, Belgium, will provide an exciting sub-plot during the opening of the IAAF season.
Follow all the action from the international cross country season on the IAAF website, which as always will provide features, interviews, meeting previews, and reports via the Amman 2009 site by clicking here
Chris Turner for the IAAF
IAAF CROSS COUNTRY PERMIT MEETINGS 2008/2009
NOV 08
Sat 15 Oeiras POR
Sun 23 Soria ESP
JAN 09
Sat 3 Belfast GBR
Sat 10 Edinburgh GBR
Sun 18 Seville ESP
FEB 09
Sun 1 San Vittore (Cinque Mulini) ITA
Sun 15 Diekirch LUX
Sat 21 Nairobi KEN
MAR 09
Sat 1 Albufeira POR
Sat 7 Fukuoka JPN
Sat 28 – 37th IAAF World Cross Country Championships, Amman, JOR
Note: Brussels will not hold an IAAF Permit meeting in 2008/2009 season as they are organising the European Cross Country Championships on 14 December 2008.