2017 World Cross-country bid depends on Sunday's success

By Norman Katende

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, of which Uganda is among the four whose bids were opened, 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 (UAF) 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 event.