Athletics is a group of sporting events that involves competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross country running, and racewalking.
Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically 4–12 kilometres (2.5–7.5 mi) long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road and minor obstacles. It is both an individual and a team sport; runners are judged on individual times and teams by a points-scoring method. Both men and women of all ages compete in cross country, which usually takes place during autumn and winter, and can include weather conditions of rain, sleet, snow or hail, and a wide range of temperatures.
Ahmad Hassan Abdullah is a long-distance and cross country runner, now representing Qatar after his switch from Kenya in 2003. Other runners who have made the same switch include Saif Saeed Shaheen.
World Athletics Cross Country Championships is the most important competition in international cross country running. Formerly held annually and organised by World Athletics, it was inaugurated in 1973, when it replaced the International Cross Country Championships. It was an annual competition until 2011, when World Athletics changed it to a biennial event.
Jéssica de Barros Augusto, ComM is a Portuguese runner who competes in cross country, road running and in middle-distance and long-distance track events. At club level, she represents Sporting CP.
Ancuța Bobocel is a Romanian middle-distance runner who specializes in the 3000 metres steeplechase. She represented Romania at the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics and is a three-time participant at the World Championships in Athletics. In 2009, she won the European U23 and Jeux de la Francophonie steeplechase titles, as well as a silver at the Summer Universiade.
Amy Yoder Begley is an American middle and long-distance runner and a US Olympian in the 10,000 meter event at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Yoder Begley lives in Atlanta, Georgia, where she is coach of the Atlanta Track Club, assisted by her husband Andrew Begley.
The African Cross Country Championships is a regional cross country running competition for athletes from Africa.
Andrea Lalli is an Italian long distance runner.
Elena Romagnolo is an Italian steeplechaser, middle and long-distance runner. She is the national record holder in the 3000 metres steeplechase, but now competes mainly in the 5000 metres.
Alessandra Aguilar Morán is a Spanish long-distance runner who specialises in marathon running. She represented her country in the event at the 2008 Summer Olympics and at the World Championships in Athletics the following year and then at the 2012 Summer Olympics and the World Championships following that.
The Cross Internacional Valle de Llodio is an annual cross country running competition that takes place in Llodio in the Basque Country, Spain, around late November. The event was first held in February 1985 and changed to an end-of-year competition soon after, holding its second edition in December 1985.
The 2010 European Cross Country Championships was a continental cross country running competition that took place on 12 December in Albufeira, Portugal. It was the second time that the country hosted the event, building upon the 1997 edition held in Oeiras.
Morhad Amdouni is a French middle and long-distance runner. He was European junior champion in track and cross country running in 2007. He won the senior team gold medal at the 2010 European Cross Country Championships.
Tejitu Daba Chalchissa is an Ethiopian-born long-distance runner who competes internationally for Bahrain. She competes mainly in cross country and track running events. She won the gold medal over 5000 metres at the 2011 Asian Athletics Championships.
Amela Terzić is a Serbian middle-distance runner. She won two gold medals at 2011 European Athletics Junior Championships in Tallinn and was the junior champion at the 2012 European Cross Country Championships. She has also been a medallist in the 1500 metres at the World Junior and World Youth Championships and a gold medalist at the 2013 European U23 Championship.
Kate Avery is a British long-distance runner. She competes in track and road competitions but specialises in cross country running. She was twice silver medallist at the 2014 European Cross Country Championships and 2015, and also a gold medallist on both occasions as part of the Great Britain women's senior team. She became the first British woman to win the NCAA Women's Division I Cross Country Championship in 2014, running for Iona College.
Federica Dal Ri is an Italian female long-distance runner who won a gold medal at the World Military Track and Field Championships.
Angela Ramello was an Italian female middle-distance runner and cross-country runner who competed at individual senior level at the World Athletics Cross Country Championships (1975).
Alessandra Corti is a former Italian female middle-distance runner and cross-country runner who competed at individual senior level at the World Athletics Cross Country Championships (1986).
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