The highlight of the French cross country calendar, the 21 Cross de l´Acier in Leffrinckoucke, will take place on Sunday and the organisers have succeeded in signing up Kenya’s reigning world cross country champion Joseph Ebuya.
Ebuya heads a strong African contingent running in the men’s race over 9.95km at the European Athletics Cross Country Permit Meeting.
His biggest challenge could come from Ethiopia’s defending champion Imane Merga, who has won for the race for last three years.
The local runners are lead by Abdellatif Meftah, who currently has the fastest half marathon by a European runner to his name this year after he ran a national record of 60: 46 in Lille on September 4.
Meftah has ambitions of finishing much higher than his modest 13th place in the same race 12 months ago.
France’s Morhad Amdouni will also be on the start line. The Corsican had a superb year in 2007 when he won both the European Athletics Junior Championships 5000m gold medal on the track and then the junior men’s race at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships.
Now 22, after a difficult year with injuries, Amdouni is looking to show the kind of form that could have him considered as an under 23 medal contender at this year’s Championships.
The 2010 SPAR European Cross Country Championships will be held in Albufeira, Portugal, on December 12.
Also in the field are Badre-Dine Zioini and James Theuri, who were members of the French team that just finished outside the medals after finishing fourth in the senior men’s race at the 2009 SPAR European Cross Country Championships.
In the women 6.55km race, Kenya’s 2009 10000m world champion Linet Masai - who won in Leffrinckoucke three years ago - and the two women who finished immediately behind her in Berlin, the Ethiopia pair of Meselech Melkamu and Wude Ayalew, have made the trip to the town on the coast of the English channel.
French participation is headed by Fatiha Klilech-Fauvel, Laurane Picoche, Carine Pasquier and Samira Mezeghrane.
More than 700 runners are expected to participate in the 10 races across the age groups on Sunday.
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