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The 800 athletes or so who will take part in
the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Saint-Etienne
Saint-Galmier on the 19 and 20th of March 2005 will
set foot in an area which has already been marked
with sport performance. Land of soccer, the district
of Saint-Etienne did not only quiver for the 1998
World Cup, it also took part in the legend of Tour
de France in cycling ; by the way it may be part
of it again next July.
It organised the French
Championships in athletics in Saint-Etienne in 2001
and 2002, allowing at the same time the international
French athlete, Driss Maazouzi, who lives in Saint-Etienne,
to become the new national champion. It also organised
the 2003 National swimming Championships.
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Now it is to the elite of international athletics
to visit the Forez Region. After Dublin in 2002,
Lausanne in 2003, Brussels in 2004 and before Fukuoka
in Japan, next year, the IAAF World Cross Country
Championships put its confidence in our district
to organise this much anticipated competition. Hundreds
of volunteers have been working for months in order
that athletes coming from more than seventy countries
are in the best shape at the hippodrome of Saint-Galmier
where all the events of the the IAAF World Cross
Country Championships will take place. I am really
pleased to welcome athletes of a very high level
because beyond the sport attraction brought by one
of the most important competitions in the world,
international medias will know from now on that
Saint-Etienne Saint-Galmier are among the great
world cities. I am very pleased also because athletics
is the universal sport above all others. This sport
is open to everyone and easy to promote. It is excellent
for health and very favourable for social and cultural
mixing : so many human values which are cherished
by our region and which have already been recognised
in the program of the European Year of Education
through Sport 2004. Have a good stay you all and
I wish that our Forez area may be a good place for
realizing your best performances. “
Michel
Thiollière
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