Harman Patil (Editor)

Great Edinburgh International Cross Country

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Date
  
Early January

Event type
  
Cross country

Location
  
Edinburgh, Scotland

Established
  
2005

Great Edinburgh International Cross Country

Distance
  
8 km for men 6 km for women 4x1 km mixed relay

Official site
  
Great Edinburgh International Cross Country

The Great Edinburgh International Cross Country is an annual cross country running competition that takes place every January in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is one of the competitions in the Great Run series of athletics events and is held alongside the Great Winter Run 5 kilometres mass participation race. The event was first held in Edinburgh in 2005 after the city was awarded the Great North Cross Country which relocated from Durham. The Great Edinburgh International Cross Country features three professional races: the men's 8 km race, the women's 6 km race, and the 4x1km relay. It is an IAAF permit meeting, which means that performances can be used to qualify for the annual IAAF World Cross Country Championships.

The grassy, occasionally muddy, course in Holyrood Park runs in a circular, clockwise pattern. The same venue was used to host the 2003 European Cross Country Championships and the 2008 IAAF World Cross Country Championships. It has had relatively difficult routes in the past, with runners twice having to climb and descend Haggis Knowe (a steep hill) in 2009. The meeting attracts cross country athletes of the highest calibre, with past competitors including six-time World Champion Kenenisa Bekele, Gebregziabher Gebremariam, Tirunesh Dibaba and Eliud Kipchoge.

The meeting is broadcast by the BBC annually, and it has received sponsorship from VisitScotland (in 2006) Bupa (from 2007 to 2014) and PureGym in 2016.

A new team competition format was introduced for the 2011 event. The four teams assembled were Great Britain, Europe, the United States and Great Britain Under-23s. Britain's Mo Farah won the race but the Europeans, featuring all the reigning European Cross medallists, won the overall team challenge.

Garrett Heath had three consecutive wins in the men's race from 2014 to 2016.

Past winners

  • All information taken from official website.
  • References

    Great Edinburgh International Cross Country Wikipedia