Kidane kicks off World Cross Country
Championships in Style 
Phil Minshull for IAAF in Belfast

Werknesh Kidane may only be 18 but she proved that
experience counts for everything when it comes to winning world cross country titles.

Third last year in Marrakesh, she drew on the knowledge
acquired in Morocco to turn bronze into gold 12 months later.

&quot;I had hoped to win after last year,&quot; the
Ethiopian schoolgirl said. &quot;Last year I learnt about what was needed to come
first.&quot;

Kidane stepped on the accelerator just after the half way
point of the 6,124m race and after that there was little question that Ethiopia were going
to notch up their third junior women&#146;s individual title in the last four years.

&quot;I started just running with my friends. There was no
real tactics but the race just worked out that way. I had no problem staying in front when
I took the lead because I was in good condition,&quot; Kidane added.

A group of eight comprising of four Ethiopians, two
Japanese

runners, Kenya&#146;s Vivian Cheruiyot and the Czech
Republic&#146;s Helena

Volna pulled clear of the chasing pack after a barely a
kilometre 

Japan&#146;s Yoshiko Fujinaga made an early bid to break up
the Ethiopian contingent by pushing the pace but soon opted for a less audacious style of
running.

Kidane though was not going to be denied after making the
decision to go it alone.

She quickly established a five second gap over Cheruiyot,
who had moved confidently into second place, passing through 4km in 13:47.

Baring a noticeable resemblance to her compatriot and
two-time world champion Derartu Tulu, Kidane increased her advantage to eight seconds
early in the final lap and never flagged despite her commanding lead.

Kidane crossed the line in 21:26, with Cheruiyot 11 seconds
in arrears.

However the diminutive Kenyan, surely the smallest person
ever to have won a world cross country championship medal at just 146cm tall in her
training shoes, believes her time will come next year in Vilamoura.

&quot;I was fifth last year so I came here expecting a
place in the top three. Next year Kidane will not be a junior next year so I think it
might be my turn to get a gold medal,&quot; a beaming Cheruiyot said.

Despite her tiny frame - she is nicknamed kadogo in the
Kenyan team which means &#145;small person&#146; in swahili and also regularly referred to
as &#145;shrimp&#146; - Cheruiyot trains three times a day.

&quot;I may be small but I am tough,&quot; she joked in her
faltering English.

All the medallist left the Northern Ireland capital happy.
The early leader Fujinaga, 14th last year, produced Japan&#146;s first ever
world cross country individual medal.

&quot;I can&#146;t believe it,&quot; the delighted Japanese
runner said. &quot;this is far beyond what I thought I would do.&quot; 

She is guaranteed instant celebrity status in running-mad
Japan after being interviewed by Japanese television crews long after the race and medal
ceremony were over.

Kidane picked up a second gold medal when Ethiopia took the
team honours with 18 points. Kenya, like last year, had to settle for second with 28
points despite having all four scorers in the top ten. 

Quotes

Winner - Worknesh Kidane (ETH) 
After coming third last time I was hoping to win this year. I worked really hard at it
and with God&#146;s help I won it. I didn&#146;t have a specific plan. In the beginning I
was just hoping to run with my friends, and after that it was just God&#146;s will that it
worked out that way. After I made the break it wasn&#146;t so hard to stay ahead because I
felt really strong.

&nbsp;Second - Vivian Cheruiyot (KEN) 
&#145;I had no major problems with the course, the run went very well.&#146;

&nbsp;Third - Fujinaga Yoshiko (JPN) 
&#145;No, I&#146;m not disappointed that I didn&#146;t come first or second, it&#146;s
my style to stay behind&#133; it&#146;s a team effort, at the end of the day that&#146;s
what&#146;s important. The Kenyans are excellent competition and I didn&#146;t really
expect to pass them, but overall I&#146;m happy.&#146;

Event report of junior women's race by Phil Minshull

Junior Women Race World Cross Country Championships

&nbsp;Paul Tergat, the legendary Kenyan distance runner who aims to win an historic fifth consecutive title on Sunday, described the course of the 27th IAAF World Cross Country Championships as "the toughest I have ever seen", at the official IAAF Press Conference earlier today. Tergat, who attended the Conference with Morocco&rsquo;s Zahra Ouaziz and British representatives Paula Radcliffe, Jon Brown and Dagne, echoed the remarks of the Chairman of the Local Organising Committee Brian Hanna who had earlier described the efforts of his team to provide competitors with an authentic cross country experience. "We made a conscious effort to provide a tough and challenging course &ndash; one that is perhaps more like a traditional European race than what we have seen in recent years." The British representatives, especially Radcliffe who is determined to improve on the silver medals she has won in her last two outings, stressed that the conditions would help the stronger runners."My training has been geared to this competition and I will need to be stronger than ever," said Radcliffe. "I know that there is a pressure of expectation on me but, on the other hand, I will have the support of a "home crowd" , I have run the course before [it has been a venue for the Belfast IAAF Cross Challenge event] and I am familiar with heavy conditions. But I will be up against some great runners like Gete Wami and it is a question of who clicks on the day"Tomorrow&rsquo;s action includes the women&rsquo;s long course race, the men&rsquo;s short course and the women&rsquo;s junior race. With rain expected, the going is likely to be very heavy and difficult underfoot. This morning, the Mayor of Belfast David Alderdice joined IAAF President Primo Nebiolo and the President and Chief Executive of UK Athletics David Hemery and David Moorcroft at the Children&rsquo;s Friendship Games - a cross-community and cross-border initiative organised with the support of the International Athletic Foundation. The event, the culmination of a programme involving 4,500 children aged 9-10 from teams in Ulster and the Republic of Ireland over recent months, was a tremendous success. The teams, made up of representatives of both communities, were praised by Dr Nebiolo: "The spirit of cross community &ndash; so suggestive in words &ndash; has been turned into reality by your presence here. Whatever your backgrounds, you are competing here as team mates and this spirit is helping to create a brighter future in Northern Ireland." The Foundation has also donated the equipment used in the event to the children of the Province.

Paul Tergat, the legendary Kenyan distance runner who aims to win an historic fifth consecutive title on Sunday, described the course of the 27th IAAF World Cross Country Championships as "the toughest I have ever seen"

Paul Tergat describes course as "toughest yet" on eve of World Cross Country Championships

David Trimble and John Hume meet IAAF President Primo
Nebiolo 
 
BELFAST &#150; Northern Ireland &#150; A day before the start of the 27th IAAF
World Cross Country Championships in Belfast, IAAF President Dr Primo Nebiolo was received
at the Parliament building in Stormont by David Trimble, First Minister of the Northern
Ireland Assembly, and John Hume, leader of the SDLP party. The two leaders, who were
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year in recognition of their crucial contribution to
the Peace Process, took time out from their busy schedules to welcome Nebiolo. Mr Trimble
and Mr Hume both spoke of their appreciation of the personal efforts of the IAAF President
to bring the world championships to Belfast. &quot;I am delighted that we will be hosting
the biggest sports event of recent decades,&quot; said Trimble. &quot;We will be welcoming
close to 1000 athletes from over 70 countries as well as countless journalists and TV
crews. The championships are a tremendous boost for the community of Northern Ireland,
especially in recognition of what the people of Northern Ireland have achieved over the
last few years. We are very grateful to the IAAF for giving us this opportunity&quot; 
 
Mr Hume said. &quot;The world will see normality in our streets and the world will see
that it strengthens the Peace Process.&quot; 
 
Dr Nebiolo said he was extremely confident that the championships would be organised
&quot;magnificently in a peaceful and safe atmosphere&quot; and stressed his deepest
thanks to Mr Trimble and Mr Hume for agreeing to a meeting which was, he said: &quot;an
honour and a privilege and showed their attention to our sport and the great symbolism of
the weekend&#146;s events.&quot; 
 
The IAAF President also underlined to Mr Trimble and Mr Hume the basic values of athletics
and the goals the IAAF hoped to achieve by promoting the most important international
sporting event staged in Northern Ireland. &quot;This event shows the world &#150; both
sporting and non-sporting &#150; that athletics can offer an example of friendship,
understanding and REAL peace where the clouds of conflict have hovered for so long,&quot;
concluded Dr Nebiolo.

A day before the start of the 27th IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Belfast, IAAF President Dr Primo Nebiolo was received at the Parliament building in Stormont by David Trimble, First Minister of the Northern Ireland Assembly, and John Hume, leader of the SDLP party

David Trimble and John Hume meet IAAF President Primo Nebiolo

Sabrina Yohannes for IAAF

With two victories and two second-place finishes in the World Cross Challenge series,
Gete Wami of Ethiopia is far enough ahead of the other women competing in the challenge
and accumulating points that she is likely to remain the series winner, but the former
world champion also stands a good chance of regaining the senior women's long course
title.

24- year old Wami won the championship in 1996 and earned a bronze medal in both of the
subsequent years, finishing behind compatriot Derartu Tulu and Ireland's Sonia O'Sullivan,
who won in 1997 and 1998 respectively; and European champion Paula Radcliffe of Great
Britain, who took second place both times.

With both Tulu and O'Sullivan absent due to motherhood (Tulu had a baby last year and
O'Sullivan is an expectant mother), Radcliffe remains Wami's strongest competitor, but
Wami is ruling no-one out.

&quot;There are the Kenyans,&quot; she said. &quot;And there could be others. It will
only be clear when we are in the field.&quot;

Radcliffe is unequivocal about where her toughest competition will lie.
&quot;Definitely Wami,&quot; she said. &quot;She's very strong.&quot;

Wami was fifth in the 1995 championships and won the following year in Cape Town, when
Tulu, the defending champion, lost a shoe in the scuffle during the race. But in 1997,
Tulu charged up from behind to reclaim her title ahead of Radcliffe and Wami.

&quot;I've been focussing on speed training,&quot; said Wami, who felt stumped by the
fact that she kept running strong races, only to find herself unable to change gears at
the end to match strong finishers. Wami's bronze at the 1998 championships was due as much
to an unexpected day-and-a-half-long layover in Rome's airport and misdirection by course
officials on the race course as anything, but she continued working on her finish. 

Last year Wami, a 1992 world junior silver-medallist and 1996 Olympic bronze-medallist
over 10,000 metres on the track, secured gold in the 3000-metres at last year's IAAF Grand
Prix final in Moscow, finishing in eight minutes, 40.11 seconds.

&quot;Even though it isn't enough, it was good,&quot; she said of her track season.

On the cross-country circuit, Wami won her first two races this winter -- in Brussels
and Durham -- decisively, leaving Radcliffe, who was battling a long cold, in fourth place
both times.

In Wami's last two races, she lost to Moroccan Zahra Ouaziz by one second, but the two
will not meet in Belfast, as Ouaziz is running the short course.

Wami singled out the Durham race as one that suited her most. &quot;The course was
good, because it wasn't muddy,&quot; she said.

But Belfast's wet weather and soft earth might not diminish Wami's strength, speculates
Radcliffe.

&quot;She ran really well in the mud in Brussels,&quot; said the Briton, who sees Wami
as a favorite even on the difficult course in Belfast. 

One aspect in which the two athletes' roles might have now been reversed appears to be
respiratory health. &quot;I've been feeling good for six weeks now,&quot; said Radcliffe
about the cold that kept resurfacing, but this time Wami is trying to repel a cold she
came down with this week, although she is doing better today than she did the day before,
her teammates say. 

Wami has been training with the team six days a week and working alone on the seventh
day, in the weeks leading up to the championships. Team selections were finalised
following national trials on February 21st.

Ethiopian women's junior and senior teams have medalled in the world cross-country
championships eight times since 1990 (earning both a long and a short course senior medal
last year). The 1999 squad includes last year's Cross Challenge winner, Merima Denboba,
and 1997 junior bronze-medallist Ayelech Worku in the senior women's long race; Yemenashu
Taye and Kutre Dulecha, junior champions from last year and 1996, competing in the senior
women's short race; and 1998 junior bronze-medallist Worknesh Kidane.

Regardless of the outcome of her race, Gete Wami, with 94 points in the Cross Challenge
competition, will likely not be unseated. Finland's Annemari Sandell and Kenya's Jackline
Maranga, with 69 and 67 points, are her nearest competitors, and the most number of points
they can earn -- 50 for first place in a championship -- will bring them up to just under
120. In the event that that happens, Wami needs only an eighth-place finish to win the
series.

Barring worsened health or some calamity then, Gete Wami, who topped the Cross
Challenge standings in 1997, will likely reclaim at least one cross-country crown in
Belfast.

Gete Wami may not be a favourite to win in Belfast, but she holds strong hopes of victory in the Cross Challenge

Gete Wami looks forward to Cross Challenge victory

A day
in the life of Mary Peters 
Steven Downes for the IAAF

It is more than a quarter of a century since Mary Peters won her Olympic gold medal at
the 1972 Munich Olympics, yet the British pentathlete remains a popular and recognisable
figure in her sport and in her home city of Belfast, venue for this weekend&#146;s IAAF
World Cross Country Championships. Ever since her moment of greatest triumph, Peters was a
driving force behind athletics, and other sport, as a means of bringing peace, harmony and
normality to Northern Ireland, the province that has been so troubled by conflict during
the past four decades. So it is hardly surprising, then, that this former British
athletics team manager and - until last year - president of the British federation, has
also been closely involved in the organisation for the 27th IAAF World Cross
Country Championships. &quot;There really isn&#146;t any such thing as a typical day for
me - I always seem to be travelling to one place or another. I reckon I&#146;ve probably
had more than 30 flights already this year, to attend meetings in England and elsewhere,
and we&#146;re not even through March yet. &quot;I used to manage my own fitness centre
here in Belfast, until about two years ago. But after 20 years of working in the place,
doing 12- and 15-hour days all year round, plus everything else I was doing, working on
various boards of charities, the Northern Ireland Sports Council, and with the local
tourist board, I decided to sell up.

&quot;It was just after I had taken over as the honorary president of the British
Athletic Federation, which was a great honour for me, and saw me travelling even more. But
it also enabled me to be involved at another level with the organisation of these world
championships.

&quot;The status as president of the National Federation meant that I could approach Dr
Primo Nebiolo, the president of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, and ask him
if the IAAF could provide extra funding for the staging of these Championships. After all,
Northern Ireland is not a huge place - there&#146;s only about 300,000 people living here
- and so there are not the sort of large business concerns that we can go to for
additional sponsorship outside the main sponsors of the IAAF. So, after all the help
we&#145;ve been getting through the NI Sports Council, the university and from Belfast
City Council, we still needed extra help from the IAAF, and Dr Nebiolo was able to give
that to us.

&quot;Yesterday, I flew back into Belfast in the morning, and I had two meetings to
attend in the afternoon, one with the tourist board and one with the organising council
for the championships. Everything seems to be going very smoothly, thanks a great deal to
an amazing young man working on the event called Noel Munnis.

&quot;Both meetings were discussing this weekend&#146;s event. For people
who have never been to Northern Ireland before, they might not appreciate quite how
important the World Cross Country Championships are to Belfast. It is the first
international sports championships to be staged here since 1961, when the Open
Championship in golf was here. So, for the first time in a very long time, the
Championships will give the world a chance to see Northern Ireland in a different context
from what they have become used to. &quot;It will be a very busy sporting weekend, too,
because on Saturday afternoon, Northern Ireland are playing against Germany in a European
football qualifying game at Windsor Park, just down the road from Barnett Demesne, where
the cross-country is being staged. It&#146;s a nice combination of international sport,
and we hope that if the weather&#146;s fine and spring-like, there will be a big crowd to
watch the running.

&quot;There&#146;s a real feeling of optimism about the place here at the minute, and
having these events here is contributing to that. The university has even changed its term
times, encouraging students to go off on their Easter holiday early to free up the
accommodation for all the competitors arriving here this week.

&quot;Trying to stage any sort of normal sport here in the past was very difficult, but
things have changed a great deal of late. &quot;The last time we staged the Cross Country
Championships here was in 1956, when a French runner, Alain Mimoun won the title. My
brother, who&#146;s been living in Australia for 40 years, gave me one of the badges he
was given when working on the course as a volunteer for those Championships. The course
then was at the Balmoral Showground, which is not far from where this year&#146;s event is
being staged, and it is where we will be holding the final party for the athletes after
the event.

&quot;It&#146;s just giving us all such a buzz. It is important to sport, obviously,
but as vice-chairman of the local tourist board, I also know how important the event is to
tourism, to let people regard Belfast as a place that they want to come to visit.

&quot;The course is looking gorgeous - we&#146;ve not had much rain at all for more
than a month, so it is firm under foot - I know some people were concerned in January that
the course might be too wet and boggy, but everything seems to have dried out now, and
they&#146;ve been putting the stands up this week. It will be a great couple of days of
athletics.&quot;

Steven Downes for the IAAF

A day in the life of Mary Peters

IAAF President Nebiolo to meet Nobel
Peace Prize winners David Trimble and John Hume in Belfast tomorrow

25 March 1999 - Belfast - IAAF President Dr
Primo Nebiolo, will be received in the Northern Ireland Parliament tomorrow, at 11:30, by
the Rt Hon David Trimble, First Minister of the Northern Ireland Assembly and Rt Hon John
Hume, leader of the SDLP, on the eve of the 27th IAAF World Cross Country Championships in
Belfast.

The two leaders, who last year received the
Nobel Peace Prize, wish to express to the world athletics movement the appreciation of the
entire country and its different communities, for the choice of Northern Ireland as host
of a sporting event involving over a thousand athletes from seventy nations representing
all five continents.

The decision to organise this edition of
the World Cross Country Championships in Belfast was taken in the Spring of 1995 and voted
unanimously by the whole IAAF Council, in answer to a request by Don Allen, the chairman
of the Northern Ireland Sports Council.

At that time, the peace process in this
tormented part of Europe was far from completion, but the hope that it might soon become
reality lay behind Don Allen&#146;s request and the desire of President Nebiolo and the
whole athletics movement to support it.

Now that, despite all the difficulties, the
dream is close to becoming reality &#150; under the terms of last year&#146;s Good Friday
agreements &#150; the presence of so many athletes acquires a special significance. It
bears witness to the desire of youngsters from around the world to live together in peace
and asserts the right of all to live and compete in a context of peace and mutual respect
and understanding.

Dr Nebiolo declared, in this context:
&quot;I am convinced that the people of Belfast and Northern Ireland will offer the
warmest of welcomes to the athletes competing in the 27th World Cross Country
Championships and that this great event will take place in an atmosphere of tranquillity.
Cross country is an Irish tradition and our coming here is also recognition of the history
of the Irish people as a whole.

&quot;I am especially grateful to the two
Nobel Peace Prize winners, David Trimble and John Hume for their interest and
participation in our event and for receiving me in the Northern Ireland Parliament. In
these difficult days for Europe, it is particularly comforting to see a message of peace
and brotherhood emanating from Belfast.&quot;

25 March 1999

IAAF President Nebiolo to meet Nobel Peace Prize winners David Trimble and John Hume in Belfast tomorrow

The
Kenyans are ready for Belfast 
Omulo Okoth for the IAAF in Nairobi

Superstar Daniel Komen and John Kibowen are out of Kenyan team for this year&#146;s
World Cross Country Championships in Belfast. But coach James Kibet is simmering with
confidence and insists the Kenyans are going for their 14th successive overall
team title. 

&quot;They are in great shape. Preparations for this year&#146;s event are a lot better
than last year&#146;s. Moreover, the conditions in which have been training this year are
terribly muddy which will enhance our chances during the competition,&quot; Kibet said
from Embu on the foot of Mt Kenya, some 200km east of Nairobi.

Kibowen and Komen, Champion and runner-up in the four-kilometre race last year in
Marrakech, could not make the Kenyan team this year due to injuries.

Another notable absentee in the team is world outdoor 10,000m champion Sally Barsosio.
She suffered serious injuries in a recent car accident, which has ruled her out of
competitive athletics this year.

But with four-time World Champion Paul Kibii Tergat and Kenyan champion of three years,
Paul Kipselgich Koech, and a strong back up, the Kenyans are confident of a successful
overall title defence. 

Thomas Nyariki, buoyed by the presence
in the team of wife Jackline Maranga, is probably the third strongest athlete in the
senior men&#146;s side. A great fighter, Nyariki will lead an early attack as Tergat and
Koech check the Ethiopians and Moroccans.

Also in this year&#146;s team are Wilson Boit, Christopher Kelong and Ishmael Kirui.
Other young guns out to gain experience include Patrick Ivuti, Evans Ruto and Joshua
Chelanga who complete the senior men&#146;s team. The senior short race has an equally
strong line-up despite the absence of Komen and Kibowen. Benjamin Limo, fourth in the
Kenyan championships, leads a strong team capable of handling the Kenyans strongest rivals
- the Moroccans and Ethiopians - any day. 

Other team members are James Koskei, Daniel Gachara, Paul Kosgei, John Kosgei and
Stephen Rerimoi.

John Kosgei, who upset Bernard Barmasai&#146;s gold medal serach during the
Commonwealth games 3000m steeplechase, is a powerful multi-faceted athlete. He has shown
great consistency since emerging as a reliable pace maker for Daniel Komen throughout the
1996 European circuit when the great Kenyan set a world 3000m record in Rieti.

Susan Chepkemei, placed 12th in Marrakech, won the four-km race at the
Kenyan Championships but will go for the 8-km race. Also in the race are experienced Jane
Omoro and Jane Ngotho, Leah Malot and Agnes Kirop. Kirop ran the junior race last year.
But with five wins in Kenya this year, including the national and IAAF Cross Challenge
race in Nairobi, she has switched to the senior race. 

Maranga, fifth in the standings of the 1998 Golden League/Grand
Prix Series at 1500m leads an equally strong four-km race which includes Naomi Mugo,
Elizabeth Cheruiyot, Teresia Wanjiku and Jeruto Kiptum.

Kiptum was second in Marrakech in the six-km race and was fourth in the Kenyan
Championships this year. 

Richard Limo, runner-up in the junior category in Marrakech last year behind Ethiopian
Milion Wolde, and this year&#146;s Kenyan champion returns to the cross country&#146;s
world stage following a consistent 1998 season which culminated in a Commonwealth Games
bronze medal in Kuala Lumpur. With him in the team are Sammy Kipketer, Albert Chepkurui,
Kipchumba Mitei, Christopher Soget and Kipkorir Lebo. 

Young Vivian Cheruiyot, fifth last year in Marrakech, leads a team of girl-rookies all
eager to justify their call-up. Besides Cheruiyot who made her debut last year after two
previous failed attempts due to her young age (she was 12 in 1998), the rest of the
juniors only emerged during the Great Rift Valley Championships and the Kenyan nationals.

The Kenyan Teams for Belfast &#145;99

SENIOR MEN (12km) &#150; Paul Koech (captain), Paul Tergat, Tom Nyariki, Evans Ruto,
Patrick Ivuti and Joshua Chelanga.

JUNIOR MEN (8km) &#150; Richard Limo, Sammy Kipketer, Albert Chepkurui, Kipchumba
Mitei, Christopher Soget and Kipkorir Lebo.

SENIOR WOMEN (8km) &#150; Leah Malot, Susan Chepkemei, Jane Omoro, Jane Ngotho and
Agnes Kirop.

JUNIOR WOMEN (6km) &#150; Vivian Cheruiyot, Debora Chepkiror, Jackline Chemuok
Rionoripo, Pamela Chemtai Kiyara, Flomena Cheyech Daniel and Elizabeth Chepkanan Rumoko.

SENIOR MEN (4km) &#150; Benjamin Limo, James Koskei, Daniel Gachara, Paul Kosgei and
John Kosgei.

SENIOR WOMEN (4km) &#150; Naomi Mugo, Elizabeth Cheruiyot Chemweno, Jackline Maranga,
Teresia Wanjiku and Jeruto Kiptum.

Preview of the World Cross Country Championships 27-28 March 1999

The Kenyans are ready for Belfast

Zahra Ouaziz&nbsp;aiming for a Golden Moment in Belfast 
Phil Minshull for the IAAF

Morocco&#146;s Zahra Ouaziz came of age at last year&#146;s
World Cross Country Championships in her native country despite being 28 and having been a
familiar face for several years around the European tracks and cross country races.

The late developer took the women&#146;s short course
silver medal in Marrakech and helped her team to Morocco&#146;s only gold medals on their
home soil. Until then, apart from her surprise 1995 World Championship 5,000 bronze medal,
she had generally not been in contention when the medals were being decided.

However everything changed for Ouaziz after Marrakech,
spurred on by her elevation to the centre stage in Morocco and beyond. Later in 1998 she
set African records over 3,000 and 5,000 on the track. 

It is difficult to decide whether her most impressive
performance was the 8:27.26 3000m she clocked at the Paris Grand Prix meeting in July or
the 14:32.08 5000m she ran in Berlin last September, although both efforts came behind
winning runs from Romania&#146;s Gabriela Szabo.

Ouaziz has started 1999 in equally promising fashion,
clearly not resting on her laurels after an exhausting but exhilarating year. A few weeks
ago she won the World Indoor Championship 3,000 silver medal with a new African record of
8:38.43, coming home yet again just behind her perpetual nemesis Szabo.

Several cross country outings across the Iberian peninsula
during January and February were capped with wins in IAAF World Cross Challenge meetings
in Seville and Vilamoura.

She is currently fourth in the Cross Challenge rankings but
is expected to sacrifice a chance of further points, and dollars, by competing in the
short race 4km in Belfast 

&quot;I want to defend my short course silver - or maybe go
one better,&quot; Ouaziz said. 

The defending short course champion, Ireland&#146;s Sonia
O&#146;Sullivan, will be missing due to pregnancy while Szabo, who makes no secret of her
dislike for cross country, has also decided to forego a trip to Belfast.

In the absence of the two women who consistently thwarted
her ambitions last year Ouaziz will start as overwhelming favourite in Belfast but she
wisely does not believe that her gold medal is a foregone conclusion.

&quot;I expect it to be a tremendous fight with the
Ethiopians and Kenyans, after all they are among the best runners in the world,&quot;
Ouaziz commented. &quot;Nevertheless I have prepared well, have had some good results in
the last few months and I am in great shape.&quot;

&quot;Winning in Seville and Vilamoura was a big boost to
my confidence. I have always known I have had the stamina but those races proved I had the
speed as well and I have become much better at sprinting at the end of a tough race.&quot;

It has been a long road to the top for Ouaziz. Inspired by the exploits of 1984
Olympic 400 hurdles champion Nawal El Moutawakel, Ouaziz started running seriously as
a teenager.

&quot;She was an inspiration to all Arabic women,&quot;
Ouaziz said of the person who is now an IAAF Council member.

Ouaziz was also helped by having, a rarity in Morocco until
recently, a supportive family attuned to athletics. 

Her older sister Nadia was an outstanding runner in the
1980s while younger sister Selma shows signs of following in her sisters&#146; footsteps
after being part of Morocco&#146;s winning team in 1998, coming home 24th in
last year&#146;s women&#146;s short race. 

All the women have been coached by their father Mohammed,
who remains Zahra&#146;s coach to this day.

When Ouaziz started to show progress she initially followed
a traditional route of many Moroccan athletes and relocated to France but since 1996 she
has returned regularly during the winter to benefit from the new facilities put in place
at the high altitude training camp in Ifrane by the Royal Morocco Athletics Federation.

&quot;Two years ago we built a programme especially for
women,&quot; the federation technical director Aziz Daouda said after last year&#146;s
championship. &quot;The girls who ran in the World Cross Country Championships were from
that programme.&quot;

Ouaziz now aims to prove that she has graduated with
honours from the programme by emulating the feats of male compatriots such as Rhadi Ben
Abdessalim and Khalid Skah and taking an individual world cross country crown in Belfast.

27th IAAF World Cross Country Championships preview. Zahra Ouaziz profile by Phil Minshull

Zahra Ouaziz aiming for a Golden Moment in Belfast

Will Paul Kipselgich Koech, named captain of the Kenyan team, stop Paul Tergat this time? This is the question on the lips of many Kenyans. Athletics buffs think Koech, 30, who beat Tergat again at the Kenyan championships for a third year running could spring a surprise in Belfast. However, he remains philosophical about it. "Good preparation give one the spring-board to great performances. But one still needs a good state of the mind, a positive mental framework on the actual day. Then the rest will depend on the Almighty," said the Kenya Army captain. He thinks Kenyans should be wary of the Ethiopians, saying the fellow east Africans can only be ignored at great peril, but he does not see why Kenya should not successfully defend the overall title. "Ethiopians have a great depth of senior athletes who have just qualified from the junior category. They are solid and if they can maintain the same form they displayed during the (Cross Challenge) circuit, we have cause to worry," he said. As a young boy in the Burnt Forest area of Rift Valley province, Koech had a dream of becoming a world champion. He wanted to emulate the legendary Kipchoge Keino. During his primary school days at Ngarwa, Uasin Gishu, he tried sprints but they were a bit tough for him. "I changed to 1500m then to 5000m. These races were a lot more manageable than the sprints," he said. When he joined Arnesens Secondary school for his secondary education between 1984 and 1987, he did not run for the first two years but he resumed racing in his third year when he qualified for the provincial championships 10,000m race. Training possibilities became even scarcer at Wareng High School where he studied for his Advanced Levels between 1988 and 1989, as he was a day scholar. He moved closer to his dreams when he joined the Armed Forces Training College after a short teaching stint. After training, he was posted to his present base, Kahawa Barracks in 1994. "My dreams came true here. Although I did not make the Kahawa team that year, I knew that breaking into the athletics world was only a matter of time," he recalls. In 1996, Koech was third in the Armed Forces Championships, eighth in the nationals and ninth in the Nairobi leg of the IAAF Cross Challenge series. He went to Cape Town for the World Cross where he placed fourth. He placed second in 10,000m Olympic trials and sixth at the Atlanta Olympics. In 1998 Koech took the silver medal of the men's long race in Marrakech just behind Paul Tergat. He also displayed great road running talents winning the IAAF Half Marathon Championships in Zurich-Ulster in 60:01 ahead of South Africa's Hendrick Ramaala and another cross country specialist, Khalid Skah of Morocco. Koech thinks his time for Gold at the World Cross Country Championships has arrived. Belfast '99 may just proffer the setting. Omulo Okoth for the IAAF

Will Paul Kipselgich Koech, named captain of the Kenyan team, stop Paul Tergat this time? 

Paul Koech...Paul Tergat's main rival?

Belfast has happy memories for Million Wolde. The young Ethiopian first made his mark on the world of international distance running by winning the IAAF World Cross Challenge race there two years ago. Still only 17, he ran away from noted runners such as Slovakia&rsquo;s Robert Stefko and South Africa&rsquo;s Hendrik Ramaala and has kept on leaving top class opponents trailing in his wake ever since. He was hardly an unknown quantity, having finished eighth in the World Cross Country Championships junior men&rsquo;s race the previous year, but his victory propelled him into the spotlight. It prompted the inevitable questions about whether he might eventually be the man to take over the mantle of his phenomenal compatriot Haile Gebrselassie, when the 5000 and 10,000 world record holder decides to become a marathon man sometime in the next decade. The questions are still there but some of the answers may come this weekend. Last week Wolde celebrated his 20th birthday and on Saturday he returns to the Northern Ireland capital striving to become the youngest man to win a senior men&rsquo;s world cross country title since the IAAF took over the organisation of the event in 1973. "I am have decided that I will run in the short four kilometre race. Can I win it? I don&rsquo;t know because the Kenyans will be very strong opponents but I will try my best," the precocious Wolde said recently. He has extra motivation to succeed, not just because of the lure of the $40,000 that goes with the gold medal. Ethiopia has lifted many women&rsquo;s and junior titles at the World Cross Country Championships in the last decade but the top honours in the senior men&rsquo;s ranks have evaded them since 1985, when the Ethiopian team took the gold medal. No Ethiopian man has stood alone on top of the medal podium since Bekele Debele did it in 1983, ironically at another British venue, Gateshead. Even the great Gebrselassie, winner of everything else there is on offer in distance running, has had to be content with missing out on the title. His best results have been a second place as a junior in 1992 followed by a bronze medal as a senior two years later. Wolde however knows what it is like to stand on top of the medal podium. Last year he won the world junior cross country title on African soil in the Moroccan city of Marrakech. He added to his gold medal collection later in the summer with the world junior 5,000 title in the Annecy, France. This winter he has prepared for the World Cross Country Championships with wins in the Durham World Cross Challenge race in January followed by an impressive indoor 3,000 victory last month in Stuttgart in 7:42.61. In addition he notched up a 3,000 bronze medal at the World Indoor Championships in Maebashi, Japan, beaten only by two men who will not be competing in Belfast - Gebrselassie and Kenya&rsquo;s Paul Bitok. Wolde knows he will not have matters his own way next weekend. Algeria&rsquo;s Noureddine Morceli has said that he will compete in his first World Cross Country Championships since his junior days more than a decade ago. Kenya, who took the first five places in last year&rsquo;s men&rsquo;s short race have named a formidable team that includes Paul Kosgei, Benjamin Limo and John Kosgei - third, fourth and fifth last year - although neither John Kibowen not Daniel Komen, first and second in Marrakech, are returning to the fray. There is also a strong European challenge from Spain, which has Isaac Viciosa and Manuel Pancorbo, the European 5,000 gold and silver medallists, in its squad. "I have great confidence that we can do well but if I had to pick out one great danger then it would be Million Wolde," Viciosa commented. Viciosa will not be fooled by Wolde&rsquo;s modest fourth position in the Ethiopian trials last month. "I had a hard indoor season and I just did enough to qualify. The World Cross Country Championships is the focus of my season," Wolde said.Phil Minshull for the IAAF

Belfast has happy memories for Million Wolde. The young Ethiopian first made his mark on the world of international distance running by winning the IAAF World Cross Challenge race there two years ago. 

Million Wolde returns to Belfast to make his mark

IAAF will organise cross community event for children in Belfast with Tony Banks and Mo
Mowlam as special guests 

18 March 1999 &#150; Monte Carlo &#150; Following up on the successful launch of the
first-ever IAAF &quot;Fun in Athletics&quot; event for children in Soweto, South Africa on
September 10 1998, a new cross community initiative for children is now underway in Ulster
and the Republic of Ireland. 

On the recommendation of IAAF President Primo Nebiolo, and with the
support of the International Athletic Foundation, the project will climax with a Final -
the &quot;Children&#146;s Friendship Games&quot; - in Belfast from 10:30 a.m. on March 26,
a day before the start of the championships.

&quot;The IAAF decided to automatically award Belfast the right to hold
the 1999 World Cross Country Championships in 1995, as a way of showing the World Athletic
Family&#146;s support of the initiatives which culminated in last year&#146;s historic
Peace Agreement,&quot; said Dr Nebiolo earlier today. &quot;We see the Children&#146;s
Friendship Games as an extension of this desire by bringing Irish children from north and
south of the border together &#150; regardless of their religious backgrounds &#150; as
well as to promote athletics, and sport in general, as a force for good. Northern Ireland
deserves the right to enter a new era of peace and prosperity and we believe sport can be
a key instrument in achieving this aim. Each team in the Final will be made up of equal
numbers of Catholics and Protestants.&quot;

The IAAF has been working closely with representatives of local
athletic clubs, schools, sports councils and authorities. The project was launched in
January 12 at the Maysfield Sports Centre and was attended by a number of local
dignitaries including John McFall (Minister of Sport and Education) and The Right
Honourable Lord Mayor of Belfast, David Alderdice. 

Since then, Trial Events have taken place in eight towns in Northern
Ireland - Bangor, Belfast, Derry City, Enniskillen, Larne, Magherafelt, Omah and Portadown
- as well as in Donegal and Dublin in the Irish Republic &#150; leading up to the Grand
Final in the Maysfield Sports Centre. Around 5000 school children - aged 9 and 10 - have
participated so far from all sections of the community. 

British Sports Minister Tony Banks, Secretary of State for Northern
Ireland Mo Mowlam and a number of top athletes will attend the Final.

A bus will be available for journalists from the main Press Hotel
&#150; The Europa &#150; to the Maysfield Sports centre and back again in time for the
official IAAF Press Conference.

18 March 1999 IAAF organise Fun in Athletics for Irish children. British Sports Minister and Minister for Ireland to attend

IAAF organises children's cross community event in Belfast with Tony Banks and Mo Mowlam

When, in the early afternoon of 28 March, an army of over two hundred runners set off across the grass of the Barnett Demesne Park, in Belfast, an historic challenge will course through the strong and agile legs of Paul Tergat &ndash; the Kenyan who has dominated this discipline since 1995.In the history of the World Cross Country Championships &ndash; celebrating their 27th edition, while the discipline itself is nearly a century old &ndash; no athlete has ever won five consecutive world cross titles. Not Alfred Shrubb, the Englishman who gave birth to this glorious athletic challenge ninety-six years ago, in Hamilton park in Scotland, nor his compatriots &ndash; Aldridge, Straw, Underwood, Robertson and Woods &ndash; who took their turns at holding the title until 1910. It was on 26 March 1910, in Belvoir Park, Belfast, that the first chapter of this fascinating story was closed, with the victory of Woods. New contenders were entering the lists, giving the journalists of the day the chance to add some fresh excitement to their reports. From France came a certain Jean Bouin, who made his first appearance on English soil in 1909 and narrowly missed victory over Woods. Then, just two years later &ndash; on 25 March 1911 &ndash; in Newport, Wales, Bouin snatched a first slice of the Empire from the English when he won the cross country title. Jean Bouin was a phenomenal athlete. In the same year, he set world records at 3000m, 6 miles and 10,000m and went on, in 1913, to set records for the hour and 15km. Who knows where his career would have taken him, had it not been interrupted by the Great War, which obliged him to run on much more dangerous ground: that of the battlefields on which he lost his life at just 26 years-old. Though brief, marked by three consecutive victories in the cross, his athletics career profoundly marked the world of sport and showed the value of cross country racing as an essential part of the formation of middle and long distance runners. This principle had long before been appreciated in Great Britain, where the practice of sport &ndash; and especially cross country running &ndash; was an integral part of youngsters&rsquo; lives; particularly for the members of the upper classes. The introduction of an annual cross country competition was a natural result, though limited in the beginning to competitors from England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. France - perhaps largely through the insistence of the Baron de Coubertin &ndash; joined the British contingents in 1907. So the contest remained &ndash; giving birth to the Five Nations Cross, as it was known &ndash; until 1923, when Belgium was invited to join the club, opening the way to an increasingly large participation and the entry of Spain, Italy, Switzerland and Luxembourg. Nonetheless, the British continued to dominate the event, while Finnish athletes, curiously enough, never participated (or perhaps were never invited) in the cross country. For Finland in the Twenties and Thirties was an invincible power in the middle and long distances, with champions like Paavo Nurmi, Vilho "Ville" Ritola, Eino Seppala, Arenas Kinnunen, Lauri Lehtinen, Imari Salminen, LauriVirtanen and Volmari Iso-Hollo. Though they did not dislike cross country &ndash; Kolehmainen and Nurmi won all three Olympic titles between them in the discipline in 1912, 1920 and 1924 &ndash; it is probable that the climate in Finland, where the winter covers the fields with ice and snow for months on end, played an important part in their decision not to participate in the Anglo-French competitions. So it was down to Joseph Guillermot to break, in 1923, the litany of British victories, which were to continue until 1946. Guillermot, who was just as talented as his compatriot Jean Bouin, was a singular personality: his heart was on the right hand side of his chest, instead of on the left like all normal people. No health fanatic, he used to smoke a pack of cigarettes a day. Despite this, his extraordinary athletic abilities enabled him not only to beat the Empire&rsquo;s athletes in Glasgow, but also to knock out Paavo Nurmi in the Olympic 5000m final in Antwerp, in 1920. Cross country, which had already counted numerous champions among its victors (especially England&rsquo;s Holden), truly exploded onto the international competition scene in the Fifties and Sixties. The arrival of North African athletes, of French nationality, such as El Ghazi and, in particular, Alain Mimoun &ndash; the 1956 Olympic Marathon winner; Yugoslavs like Mihalic &ndash; the silver medallist in the same marathon; Moroccans with the talent of Ben Rhadi, who had the singular honour of finishing second to Abebe Bikila, in Rome in 1960; Belgians such as the renowned Gaston Roelants or Tunisians like Mohamed Gamoudi: all showed that cross country had ceased to be a purely British event and had become a cultural expression of the athletics universe. This is truly a discipline which forms body and spirit as few others can. From running across fields rendered barely practicable by rain and snow, hurdling hedges and other obstacles, climbing improvised slopes and slithering down rugged slopes, the body learns to conquer fatigue while remaining alert. A moment&rsquo;s inattention is enough to end the race in a ditch. The spirit too has its part, surrounded by nature and struggling to overcome its hazards, there is a return to ancient sensations which were second nature to the women and men who preceded us on the route toward the civilisation of today. Can it be that the African athletes appear unbeatable in these events because they are so close to nature? Is the contrary true of the runners of Europe, America and Oceania who try to keep up with them? There can be no other explanation for the eclipse of Western athletes, as if the ecological crisis in this part of the planet had also provoked, alongside the decimation of the forests and countryside, the disappearance of those heroes of yesteryear. The last western stars of cross country were Carlo Lopes, John Treacy and Craig Virgin. Lopes was Portuguese and ran just as his forebears navigated: crossing uncharted terrain. His talent as a distance runner, his rythmic and untiring stride, his incomparable tenacity made him one of the greatest runners of all time: from the 10,000m to the marathon, there were few who could keep up with him. I remember him at Meadowlands, on the outskirts of New York in 1984, where he once again &ndash; eight years after his triumph in Chepstow, Wales &ndash; won the world cross title, giving a show of endurance and speed which few would have considered possible in a man of 37 years of age. Five months later, on the streets of Los Angeles, he did it again when he became Olympic champion in the marathon. John Treacy, on the other hand, appeared born to cross country: he seemed to have in his legs all of the energy of Ireland&rsquo;s renowned thoroughbreds as they face the hurdles. He won two world titles, as did Craig Virgin &ndash; another long-limbed athlete, whose greatest arm was his rhythm &ndash; the first and last American to win the title. The era of Africa, already heralded by the triumph of athletes from the Maghreb, exploded halfway through the Eighties, coinciding with a courageous decision of the International Federation: that of offering to pay the travelling expenses of qualifying athletes, thus enabling everyone the chance to compete. Ethiopia&rsquo;s Mohammed Kedir opened the series, followed by his compatriot Bekele Debele, before the powerful figure of John Ngugi burst onto the scene. It was in Neuchatel in 1986, that the first of his five victories was to come (four of these consecutive, the fifth after a two year break, in 1992) and it was possibly the most impressive. I recall him running barefoot, his chest and knees thrusting forwards, maintaining an unusually long stride and outkicking Ethiopia&rsquo;s Abebe Mekonnen at the finish. Ngugi&rsquo;s victory signalled the start of the reign of Kenya, which today seems as unrivalled as that of England at the start of the century. Ngugi has spawned some magnificent pupils in William Sigei and Paul Tergat and the latter could finally surpass his mentor&rsquo;s achievements in Belfast.Giorgio Reineri for the IAAF

WORLD ATHLETICS CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS

Maranga makes it all look easy

Hailu goes one better than Haile

Tergat runs into the History Books

Senior Men Short Cross report

Gete Wami makes it a perfect day for Ethiopia