December 13 meeting in Ireland has been called off due to the coronavirus pandemic

Back in 2001 Dublin was forced to abandon staging the World Cross Country Championships due to the foot-and-mouth outbreak and the event was moved to Belgium. Now lightning has struck twice with another disease – coronavirus – leading to the cancellation of the European Cross Country Championships on December 13.

The event was due to be staged at the Sport Ireland campus at Abbotstown but travel restrictions mean the event has too much uncertainty surrounding it and the organising committee has abandoned attempts to stage it.

The news will come as a bitter blow to British cross-country runners, who often dominate the Euro Cross and would have aimed to earn selection at the GB trial in Liverpool in late November. It is also bad news for cross-country running in general as the sport has been striving to get back into action this winter following the cancellation of next month’s Cardiff Cross Challenge in South Wales.

READ MORE: Milton Keynes could now kick off Cross Challenge series

The Irish Times reports that the Dublin organising committee says the event is off “due to too many uncertainties and existing sanitary restrictions in Ireland associated to the Covid-19 situation”.

European Athletics interim president Dobromir Karamarinov said: "Following the cancellation of the Paris 2020 European Athletics Championship a few months ago, this was the last opportunity for a major European Athletics event this year and cancelling it was not an option we chose lightly."

Turin is currently due to stage the 2021 event but at the turn of the millennium after Dublin was forced to cede the 2001 World Cross it was later allowed to stage a successful 2002 championships at Leopardstown racecourse.

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