2014/15 IAAF Cross Country Permit series – one month to go

The series of 11 individual meetings in seven different countries which make up this winter’s IAAF Cross Country Permit series 2014/15 will kick off with the XI Cross de Atapuerca, near the Spanish city of Burgos, on Sunday 16 November.

The Atapuerca race has often been the curtain raiser for the series in recent years and winners have regularly gone on to success at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships later in the winter. This was amply demonstrated by 2012 men’s winner Imane Merga, who later that season took the silver medal on the global stage in Bydgoszcz, Poland, which staged the most recent edition of the championships.  

In the course of the three-and-a-half months after Atapuerca, many of the world’s finest middle and long-distance runners will take part in the series, which traverses three continents before its conclusion at the famous Antrim International Cross Country in Northern Ireland. The Antrim meeting has this year moved from its traditional early January place on the calendar and instead will be staged on Saturday 14 March.

The focus of all the leading runners competing in the series will be the 2015 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, which will celebrate its 41st edition on 28 March in Guiyang, China.

“We have a challenge to maintain a global perspective on this aspect of the sport, which not only has great tradition, but tremendous potential not only as a unique discipline but as a bed rock of endurance running,” IAAF vice president Sebastian Coe commented at the IAAF Global Seminar on Cross Country Running held in Belgrade, Serbia, last December. The series will again aim to demonstrate and highlight the discipline’s international appeal and central place in athletics.

The series includes some of the most venerable athletics events in the world, including the Cinque Mulini in San Vittore Olana, Italy, which will be held for the 83rd time this winter.

The Cross Juan Muguerza in the Spanish town of Elgoibar on Sunday 25 January will have its 71st running while the first of the two Italian stops in the series, the Cross Country Internazionale Campaccio in San Giorgio su Legnano, will mark its 58th edition on Sunday 6 January.

Meanwhile, the series' Asian stop, the Chiba International Cross Country Meeting in Japan, on 10 February, will celebrate its golden anniversary and be contested for the 50th time.

As in previous years, the IAAF website will provide in-depth coverage of all the action, including previews, reports and results.

The dedicated section on the IAAF website to the IAAF Cross Country Permit series can be found here.

The 2014/15 IAAF Cross Country Permit calendar

Sunday 16 November – XI Cross de Atapuerca, Burgos, ESP
Sunday 21 December – Iris Lotto Crosscup, Brussels, BEL
Tuesday 6 January – 58th Campaccio-International Cross Country, San Giorgio su Legnano, ITA
Saturday 10 January – Great Edinburgh Cross Country, Edinburgh, GBR
Sunday 18 January – XXXII Cross Internacional de Italica, Sevilla, ESP
Sunday 25 January – Cross Juan Muguerza, Elgoibar, ESP
Sunday 8 February – 50^th Chiba International Cross Country Meet, Chiba, JPN
Saturday 14 February – IAAF Permit/Athletics Kenya Cross Country, Nairobi, KEN
Sunday 15 February – 83^rd Cinque Mulini, San Vittore Olona, ITA
Sunday 22 February – 37^th Almond Blossom Cross Country, Albufeira, POR
Saturday 14 March – IAAF Antrim International Cross Country, Antrim, GBR 

IAAF