Spain to Host Starting and Ending Events of IAAF Cross Country Permit Events 2010-2011
The 12-individual meetings series which will take the final decision about IAAF Cross Country Permit Events for year 2010-2011 would be held at Atapuerca, Spain on November 07, 2010.
The permit series would eventually conclude in the city of Albufeira, Portugal on March 06, 2011, however the season as a whole would culminate with a gap of two weeks at the 39th edition of IAAF World Cross Country Championships, in the city of Punta Umbria
Spain on March 20, 2011. After hosting the successful competitions during 1981 in Madrid and during 1993 in Amorebieta, this would be the third time the Spanish would be organizing the event.
The “7th cross International de Atapuerca” has been taken as the part of the IAAF Cross Country Permit Events Series for the first time since its inception. The event was first held in 2004, however at that time it was taken as a low-key event
where mostly only the local athlete used to compete.
However, the untiring efforts made by the organizers of the events on each year without a break having Miguel Angel de Los Mozos at the helm paid the rewards and the authorities sitting at IAAF Cross Country Permit Events eventually allowed the event to
be a part of it. Prior to that, the event has also been a part of the European Athletics Circuit. Now it enjoys the status of being one of the two Spanish legs on the IAAF calendar accompanied with the much renowned ‘Cross International de Italica’.
The course for the race which have been finalized by the organizers, reportedly, traces the path through the worth seeing fields present around the city of Atapuerca. The track also passes through the Archaeological site of the city which has been recently
added to the list of the UNESCO world heritage sites. Atapuerca, being around 260 km away from Madrid is would be quite an accessible place for the athletes coming from the other parts of the world.
So far, the prominent permit winners constitute Gebre-egziabher Gebremairiam who happened to the be the World Cross Country champion in 2009, along with reigning European XC champion Alemayehu Bezabeh from Spain who happened to be the title winner in 2008
in men’s competition. Moreover, there are Genzebe Dibaba from Ethiopia who holds the current world Junior 5000m championship title and reigning World 3000 meters steeplechase gold medallist, Marta Dominguez from Spain.
For 2010’s event, the elite races for men have distance schedules of 8.925km, while for women it is 7.275km on fast and flat circuit.
With a budget of $ 140,000 at their disposal for signing up the athletes, a spokesperson of the organization said that they were having talks over getting high calibre athletes on the field. He lamented that though the organization was not in a position
to confirm any big names yet, however he assured the spectators and the media to observe an impressive line-up for the event.
While revealing the planning and aims of the organization, the spokesperson said that their primary concern was to make the current circuit permanent at least till the near future, as this was crucial to consolidate the event as one of the leading permit
events around the globe.
The official presentation of the big event is likely to take place 5 days prior to the first meeting. However, the press conference with the aim to announce the names of the big athletes has been scheduled at the eve of the Permit, on November 6, 2011.
In order to highlight the importance of the event and to mark the efforts made in making it a part of the IAAF Cross Country Permit Events, there is a plan for commemorative stamps to be issued. A set of commemorative stamps to an IAAF status has already
been issued on October 7, while a special set of stamps would be issued on November 7, 2010, that is on the day of the competition.
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