As part of the preparation for the SPAR European Cross Country Championships on the 13th December a three-strong Irish delegation will attend the European Athletics Convention in Budapest this weekend.

Liam Hennessy, Event Director and President of Athletics Ireland, Brendan McDaid, Head of Presentations and Clare McCoy, Marketing and Promotions will travel to Hungary to present to the Convention ahead of the event in Santry at the end of the year. For the Local Organising Committee it will give them an opportunity to promote the SPAR European Cross Country Championships and to liaise with other European delegations about the event.

Liam Hennessy, Event Director for the SPAR European Cross Country Championships, sees this as the perfect opportunity to promote the event to the European athletics community. “We have had a great response from our colleagues across Europe and they are all very much behind the event in Dublin. We will be going over to update them on everything that will be happening leading into the Championships and the overall plan for the event itself. It will also give us a chance to encourage participation and see how we can help accommodate countries to basically make this one of the best European Cross Country Championships is the history of the event,” Hennessy said.

Clare McCoy, Marketing and Promotion for the Championships, said; ““The European Athletics Convention in Budapest provides the LOC with another platform to promote the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Dublin. It also provides access and networking opportunities with the Member Federations who will all receive an exclusive Dublin 2009 Bulletin as part of the ongoing promotional strategy. We hope to encourage as many countries as possible to participate in one of the biggest sports events of the year on December 13th.”

The Local Organising Committee has also produced an exclusive bulletin for the convention that will be distributed to everyone on the official SPAR European Cross Country Championship mailing list. Those interested in being added to the list for all the up-to-date information can sign up on the home page of Dublin2009.ie.