It has been confirmed the world cross-country championships, which were to be held at Leopardstown over the weekend of March 24-25, have been switched to Brussels. The International Amateur Athletic Federation was forced to seek an alternative venue because of the outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Britain.
The Athletics Association of Ireland were instructed by the Department of Agriculture that the event should not go ahead despite drawing up measures which they had hope would be acceptable to the Government. In fact, the management at Leopardstown race course said yesterday that as long as horse racing was banned at the venue, there was no way it could host the championships. It comes as a crushing blow to the organisation which has put in hours of work and a huge financial investment over the past 18 months into staging this event.
"The IAAF accepts the decision with regret but fully understands that the extraordinary circumstances left the Irish Athletic Association with no alternative but to cancel the event," said the IAAF in a statement earlier today.
Over 1,000 athletes from all over the world were to travel to Dublin for the event while thousands of spectators were expected to turn up over the weekend to watch Irish athletes like Olympic silver medallist Sonia O'Sullivan and Séamus Power compete against the world's best cross-country athletes. Also the short course trials for the World Cross-country championships, due to take place this weekend, have been abandoned.
Filed by Amanda Fennelly
