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From the Commonwealth Games to the World Cross Country Championships, Twenty-four of Australia’s top athletes will travel to Fukuoka, Japan this week for the 34th edition of the IAAF World Cross Country Championships on the 1-2 April.
Australia will field its second largest Australian World Cross Country team since the 1991 World Cross in Antwerp, Belgium and will also mark Australia's 29th appearance at the Championships.
Included in the team is 2004 World Cross Country champion, Benita Johnson and Vicki Mitchell, both who have been selected in the women’s long course event and who have shown some recent good Cross Country form, Vicki placing 4th in the NCAA (US College) Cross Country in November.
The championships are the oldest IAAF World Athletics Series event, and this year it will be significant in that it will be the last time a short and long course will be conducted in the same meet since it’s introduction in 1998.
The championship moves to Kenya in 2007 and under a new format, only long course events will be held and will see the championship will go back to its original four-race scenario (one senior men’s and one senior women’s race, and as well as junior competitions for both sexes).
The championship also makes its debut in Japan this year and will mark a significant moment in distance running history with only one man, Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele will be attempting his fifth consecutive win (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 IAAF will award prize money to the winners, the total amount on offer is $560,000 which will be distributed to individuals and teams who finish in the top-6 positions in the senior races only.
Athletics Australia’s National Performance Manager, Max Binnington believes the Team will use the successes at the recent Commonwealth Games to inspire them in this most competitive of World athletics events.
"Craig Mottram, Benita Johnson and Anna Thompson will again show they are amongst the best cross country runners in the world. And with the support of a very strong line-up in the Women’s Short Course Team we are looking for a top ten finish in that race" said Binnington.
The 2006 Australian World Cross Country Team:
Women Short Course
Benita Johnson (V)
Donna MacFarlane (T)
Melissa Rollison (Q)
Anna Thompson (V)
Eloise Wellings (N)
Women Long Course
Benita Johnson (V)
Susan Michelsson (V)
Vicky Mitchell (V)
Anna Thompson (V)
Eloise Wellings (N)
Emman Riles (N)
Women Junior
Emily Brichacek (A)
Sarah Grahame (V)
Rachel Green (V)
Madeline Heiner (N)
Lucy Starrat (N)
Lara Tamsett N)
Men Short Course
David Byrne (V)
Martin Dent (A)
Craig Mottram (V)
Jeremy Roff (N)
Louis Rowan (V)
Alastair Stevenson (Q)
Men Long Course
Brett Cartwright (S)
Martin Dent (A)
Russell Dessaix-Chin (N)
Craig Mottram (V)
David Ruschena (V)
source Athletics Australia |
