By James Waindi

The future of the World Cross country championship looks bleak after International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) announced that lack of sponsorship hinders them from hosting the event annually.

The tournament, which was held in Kenya in 2005, has been an annual event since its introduction 37 years ago, but lack of steady sponsorship has now forced the organisers to hold it after every two years.

Athletics Kenya Chairman Isaiah Kiplagat who also doubles up as a IAAF Council Member announced this on Monday during a luncheon organised by Kenya Commercial Back (KCB) for the local Cross country team that won team the title at the 37th World Cross country championship in Amman, Jordan last month.

"The future of the World Cross country championship is currently not certain because no country is willing to host the event and it is lacking sponsorship. This has prompted IAAF to hold it after every two years instead of annually," said Kiplagat.

" Next year’s event set for Bydgoszcz, Poland will go on as planned but after that, the event will be held after a span of two years and we will decide the next host during the 12th IAAF World championships in Athletics in Berlin, Germany between August 15 and 23," he said.

Two-time Olympic gold medallist and National Olympics Committee of Kenya (NOCK) chairman Kipchoge Keino said the decision to hold the championship after two years was a blow to local athletes but urged Athletics Kenya to organise more local Cross country events to keep the athletes busy and active.

"It is now a challenge to the local athletics chiefs to organise as many local cross country events as possible to occupy our athletes. Confederation of African Athletics should also organise continental and regional Cross country competitions to cover up for the global event," said Keino.

Meanwhile, it is now official that Kenya will host the 2010 Africa Senior Athletics Championships in Nairobi.

Kiplagat said they had settled the issue with the Government and said the body had already started preparations for hosting the continental event.

"We have already appointed a local organising committee for the 2010 Africa Senior Athletics Championships and we are soon going to set up a secretariat specifically for the event," said Kiplagat.

Africa will use the Africa Senior Athletics Championships to select the African team for the 2010 World Cup in Split, Croatia.

Meanwhile, KCB on Monday rewarded the national Cross country team with Sh1 million for their feat at the global event. The team pocked Sh250, 000 for the three team titles and the overall title, while gold medallist Florence Kiplagat who won the senior women race pocketed Sh250, 000.

The Government through the Ministry of Sports also donated Sh1 million to the five medallists, Florence Kiplagat (Sh300, 000), Lynet Masai (Sh200, 000), Mercy Cherono (Sh200, 000), Titus Mbishei (Sh200, 000) and Jackline Chepng’eno (Sh100, 000).