Attractive cash rewards await World Cross Country stars

Jan 30, 2017

A total of $310,000 (sh 1.1bn) will be up for grabs

Very attractive cash rewards await outstanding performers at the World Cross Country.
 
A total of $310,000 (sh 1.1bn) will be up for grabs at the biennial event that will this year be staged by Uganda.

The event will be staged at the Kololo Independence Grounds on March 26.

Outstanding performers in the senior events will on the March 26 Kololo event be rewarded by the world athletics body IAAF.

A first prize of $30,000 (sh106m) will be earned by each individual winner of the men's and women's senior races.

The prizes will stretch to the sixth finisher in the individual and team events while only the top four finishers will earn money in the mixed relays.

The second person in each of the individual races will earn $15,000, third $10,000, fourth $7000, fifth $5000 and sixth $3000.

The winning team will get $20,000, runner-up $16,000, third $12,000, fourth $ 10,000, fifth $8000 and sixth $4000.

In the mixed relays only the first four finishers will receive cash. The winners will share $12,000, runners-up $8,000, third $ 6,000 and fourth $4,000.

The closest Uganda got to winning the big prize was in 2009 in Amman when Moses Kipsiro won silver in the 12 kilometer senior men's race.

Kipsiro was good for bronze the following year in Poland. Uganda's women's team comprising of Juliet Chekwel (14), Adera Nyakisi (24), Patricia Chepkwemoi (30) and Emily Chebet (33)won bronze at the last world meet in China.

Its men had earlier won similar accolades in 2007 and 2011.

In an incredible show of dominance, the senior men's team race has been won by Ethiopia or Kenya every year since 1981 in both the short and long races.

These nations have enjoyed a similar strangle-hold on the junior men's races since 1982.

In the senior men's 12 km race, Kenya won the world championships for an astounding 18 years in a row, from 1986 through 2003, a record of unequaled international success.

Likewise on the women's side, only one other nation has won the long team race since 1991: Portugal, in 1994.

These African nations were not quite so dominant in the short races, but they have won every women's junior race since its introduction in 1989.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});