KAMPALA, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Athletes have started arriving in Uganda ahead of the 2017 International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Cross Country Championship scheduled to take place here on March 26.
Team Australia is the first to arrive ahead of the event which takes place in the capital Kampala.
"The 23-man team of Australia has arrived and we expected the U.S. team to be here on Tuesday night," Beatrice Ayikoru, secretary general Uganda Athletics Federation told Xinhua in an interview on Tuesday.
Fifty-nine countries and regions have entered the event which will have 553 athletes taking part in.
The event will attract both senior and junior athletes.
Ethiopia are the defending champions of the senior team events, while Kenya dominated the individual events in the last championship in Guiyang, China.
Uganda's team to be captained by Timothy Toroitich will also have 2012 Olympics marathon gold medal winner Stephen Kiprotich.
A total of 310,000 U.S. dollars cash prizes await the leading runners in the senior races at the biennial event, which is the oldest event in the IAAF world series.
