What future for world cross country after Guiyang meeting?

Debate on the future of cross country will still emerge in Guiyang, China when over 50 countries converge for the event on Saturday.

Year after year, African runners have proven their domination of cross country; they decide the outcome in all four races. The top ten finishers in each of the four races in the last three meetings have all been African-born runners.

Qatar, Bahrain, Turkey, have also had athletes performing well in the discipline.

However, most of these nations have imports from Africa and would pass as either Kenyan, Eritreans or Ethiopia. But the emergence of Uganda, U.S and China, especially in youth cadres will certainly raise the interest in the event.

Unlike in Bydgoszcz, Poland, one difference in Guiyang will be the weather conditions. While freezing temperatures and snow greeted the runners in Bydgoszcz, warm and moist conditions are forecast on Saturday.

Outside Africa, bronze medallist in senior men's race Chris Derrick of the United States will be the athlete to beat.

The 24-year-old is in better form than he was in 2013 when he finished 10th.

European cross-country champion Polat Kemboi Arikan from Turkey leads his continent's prospects along with renowned cross-country exponent Hassan Chahdi from France, who recently posted a 1:01:38 half marathon debut in Paris.

But the acknowledgment by IAAF President Lamine Diack that the domination of cross country running by Kenya and Ethiopia is killing the sport.

At their council meeting in Berlin, the International Association of Athletics Federations ruled that the World Cross Country Championships will now be held once every two years rather than annually.

The IAAF council members argued that this would allow the continents to organize continental championships on the alternate years.

This is after Kenya and Ethiopia dominated the discipline so much that European television interest in the sport has taken a nosedive.

"The World Cross Country championships have become not only an African affair but an East African affair, and these days you don' t even get athletes from West Africa competing," IAAF president Lamine Diack.

Yet, in Guiyang, there will be more than enough at stake to inspire even the lame to leap and clear the race.

No less than 280,000 U.S. dollars in prize money will be paid out by the IAAF to the leading runners in the two senior races at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships.

A first prize of 30,000 dollars will be awarded to each individual winner of the men's and women's senior races, with money available down to sixth place. In total, 140,000 dollars is on offer for individual prizes.

And after months of preparations, the Chinese lakeside city of Guiyang is ready to welcome more than 400 runners from 51 different countries.

The championships course is located in a mountainous area approximately 30km away from the city and is set in and around a horse racing circuit.

It is a facility which has since 2000 hosted Asian and national cross-country championships.

After Guiyang, the event will return to Africa for the third time in Kampala in 2017. Only Johannesburg (1999) and Mombasa ( 2007) have hosted the event before in the continent. Endite