Athletics: Uganda to bid for World Cross Country

By Vision Reporters

 Africa Cross-country Championship  (Sunday, 2pm)

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The success of Sunday's 3rd edition of the Africa Cross Country championships will either make or break Uganda’s dream of bidding for the 2017 World Cross Country championships.

With the international athletics body releasing the bid documents for the event, the national athletics federation is looking at using Uganda’s love for the sport as a springboard to up their bid.

“We have received the bid documents and we are going to look through. How we fair at Sunday’s event will surely give us a   great   picture of how we will be able to handle this,” said the Uganda Athletics federation general secretary Beatrice Ayikoru.

The international body mostly looks at the organisational level, accommodation, transport and the fans’ interest as the basis of awarding hosting rights for an event.

“We believe that we have had a good foundation and what is remaining is to encourage   the fans to turn up in big numbers,” said Ayikoru. Athletes from 31 countries will be competing in the biennial Africa cross country even

Uganda ready

Coaches Gordon Ahimbisibwe and Raphael Kasajja were smiling with satisfaction as the national cross-country team completed morning training at the Kololo Ceremonial Grounds.

“We are going for gold,” said Ahimbisibwe adding “the team is in superb form. They are focused and most important, there are no injuries.”

This optimism has been further boosted by what Kasajja describes as a “good and generally flat course that should further improve performance. Expect some very fast times.”

The mood can’t be better as Team Uganda, captained by multiple medalist Moses Kipsiro, seeks to break Kenya’s dominance in Africa’s top cross-country event.

Kipsiro as usual was reserved but teenager Phillip Kipyego summed up the mood in the camp “bring on Ethiopia and Kenya. We are ready for battle.”

The squad of 28 concluded three weeks of high altitude training in Bukwo on Wednesday. They are currently staying at Imperial Royale Hotel.

Bukwo training was effective

Ahimbisibwe described the Bukwo training as very effective.

“We not only have loads of stamina, but we have also seriously worked on speed.”

Ethiopia and Kenya have always beaten Uganda on the big stage because of better speed in the final meters.

“That’s something we have addressed,” said a confident Ahimbisibwe, who is best remembered as the coach who was by Stephen Kiprotich’s side as he won gold at the 2012 London Olympics marathon.

Meanwhile Africa Athletics Confederation officials started arriving on Tuesday.

Teams also began arriving yesterday with Madagascar, Botswana, Comoros, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia and Gabon the first to jet in on Thursday.

Most of the teams arrived yesterday. The only countries coming today will be Guinea, Cameroon and Nigeria.

The Kololo course has been finalised. Faustino Kiwa, who is in charge of the course, said tartan will be laid on a 186 meter stretch of concrete.