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EDINBURGH, GBR - In preparation for this weekend's 36th IAAF World Cross Country Championships, members of Team USA's squad selected team captains during a team meeting on Thursday.
The senior men's 12 km squad will be led by recent USA Men's 8 km champion Jorge Torres (Boulder, Colo.). Torres was the runner-up in the 12 km at the USA Cross Country Championships in San Diego and finished 13th in the 4 km at his last appearance at the World Cross Country Championships in 2005.
Four-time team member Renee Metivier (Boulder, Colo.), was selected to lead the open women's team in the 8 km race in Edinburgh. This makes the second consecutive year that Metivier has been selected as senior women's captain.
Benjamin Johnson (Albuquerque, N.M.), a senior at Albuquerque Academy finished sixth at the USA Cross Country Championships was selected as captain for Team USA's junior men in Edinburgh.
Leading the Team USA junior women will be Alex Gits (Edina, Minn.), a freshman at Stanford University, who finished second at the USA Cross Country Championships last month.
A record 78 IAAF Member Federations are expected for Sunday's event. The championships, which have a history dating back to 1903, and which first came under the banner of the World Cross Country Championships as an official IAAF event in 1973, have an existing participation record of 76 nations which was set at the 2000 edition in Vilamoura, Portugal.
The venue for the 2008 championships is Holyrood Park, site of the European Cross Country Championships in 2003, and has been the venue for many editions of the Great Edinburgh International Cross Country Race, which is an IAAF XC Permit meeting.
For more information on the 2008 World Cross Country Championships, visit USATF.org.
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