The South American Cross Country Championships is an annual continental

cross country running Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and soil, earth, pass through woodlands and ope ...

competition for athletes from

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

or, more specifically, member countries of

CONSUDATLE Atletismo Sudamericano (''South American Athletics''), formerly CONSUDATLE ( Spanish: Confederación Sudamericana de Atletismo; ''South American Athletics Confederation''), is the continental confederation governing body of athletics for national ...

. It was first held in 1986, making it the oldest of the continental cross country championships. The event is typically held in late February or early March. The

South American Championships in Athletics The South American Championships in Athletics is a biennial athletics event organized by CONSUDATLE. The first edition in 1919 was competed between only two countries (Chile and Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, ...

were the precursor to the competition in that cross country was featured on the main

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competitio ...

programme between 1924 and 1949. After the introduction of an independent championships in 1986, multiple races were held: the initial competition schedule featured long races for senior men and women, and shorter races for junior men and women. This was expanded in 1991 with the addition of a youth competition for younger runners. Keeping in line with changes to the IAAF World Cross Country Championships, the South American championships also held senior short race competitions between 1998 and 2006, to complement the established long races. The short races were removed from the programme after their removal from the World Championships in 2006.Continental Cross Country Championships and Cups
GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2010-03-02.

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

have been the most successful nation at the championships: they were undefeated in both of the long race team contests between 1993 and 2001.

Editions

Champions

Long course

Short course

References

External links

* * from

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international sports governing body, governing body for the sport ...

{{South American Championships Recurring sporting events established in 1986 Continental athletics championships Cross country running competitions Cross country Cross country Athletics team events