Dublin to host Euro Cross Country

Mo Farah won the men's European Cross Country title last year

The 2009 European Cross Country Championships will be staged at Santry in Dublin.
The European Athletics Council announced on Monday that the Irish bid had edged out French hopeful Carcassone and Polish city Bydogoszcz.

Athletics Ireland has earmarked 13 December as the date for the event.

"I am thrilled with the endorsement by European Athletics of our bid to host the Spar European Cross Country 2009," said AAI official Liam Hennessy.

Ireland hosted the 1979 and 2002 World Cross Country Championships but it will be the first occasion the country has staged the European Championships.

Hennessy added that the successful bid had been the "culmination of several years of hard work".

"It's been an odyssey and I would like to thank all the co-ordinating team for their enthusiastic hard work but would especially thank Tom McCormack and Paddy Marley for their pivotal role in the bid process.

"The willing support from the Irish Sports Council, RTE, Fingal County Council and Clonliffe Harriers was also critical in the awarding of the event to Ireland."

Britain's Mo Farah and Ukraine's Tatyana Golovchenko claimed the individual titles in last year's championships while Irish athlete Fionnuala Britton was second in the Under-23 event.

Irish athlete Catherina McKiernan won the European title in 1994.


Meanwhile, Paris has been chosen to host the European Indoor Championships in 2011 and Gothenburg was selected to host the 2013 event.
The European Indoor Championships were first held in 1966 in Dortmund. Paris has hosted it once, in 1994.