After Brussels last year, Fukuoka next year, the IAAF World Cross Country Championships will find in the Rhone Alpes an area where many high level athletes originate. In Saint Galmier you are offered the top level athletes of international athletics in the tradition of athletics practised in Rhone Alpes which counts among the best sites of international competition.
Saint-Etienne still lives the recent French Championships which took place twice in a row at the heart of Forez

. I would like to thank professional and voluntary local participants and local communities which worked hard to make these 2005 IAAF World Cross Country Championships a sport and festive meeting. I welcome to Rhone Alpes all the 800 athletes who are gathered under the performance and sport spirit banner, their families an their staff. Our regional heart beats at the rhythm of the practise of sport open to everyone from Rhone-Alpes, at school, at leisure or at a high level. “Rhône

Jean-Jack Queyranne