On behalf of the IAAF, I am very pleased to write this foreword for the bulletin of the 2005 edition of the IAAF World Cross Country Championships. The World Cross Country Championships has been around, in more or less the same format, since the early days of the 20th century, and deserves its reputation not just as the oldest, but one of the toughest competitions in athletics world. Every distance runner wants to win the World Cross!

After such great athletics competitions in 2004, including of course the Athens Olympic Games, we hope that the top stars of the sport will take part in the next edition of the World Cross Country. Yet regardless of which individual stars participate, the added team element at the event always makes it an annual festival of long distance running. The team competitions in all categories, men and women, senior and junior, and the ensuing battle for points give the Championships a unique spirit. A full weekend of races including Junior and Short course events, with teams from every corner of the world, is also certain to bring out the crowds in strength. Although the region may be most famous around the world for “Les Verts” the Saint-Etienne football team that was a star of Europe in the 1970s and 1980s, France is one of the greatest countries in the world in terms of athletics culture, and has organised not only the recent IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Paris St- Denis with great aplomb, but many, many other top athletics competitions over the years. With this sort of experience, I am confident that the local organising committee of Saint-Etienne - Saint- Galmier will be working hard over the next months to ensure the event marks another great chapter in the athletics history books.

Lamine Diack