Asian Cross Country Championships

Asian Cross Country Championship
Upcoming season or competition:
Current sports event 2023 Asian Cross Country Championships
Sport Cross country running
Founded 1991
Continent Asia (AAA)

The Asian Cross Country Championships is a biennial regional cross country running competition for athletes from Asia. It is organised by the Asian Athletics Association and was first held in 1991 in Fukuoka, Japan. The competition has been held every two years since then, although the 2003 edition was postponed due to political conflicts within the region.

The championships comprises four races: separate senior races for men and for women, and two corresponding junior races for the sexes. Furthermore, in each of the four races athletes compete simultaneously for both individual medals and team medals. For the team competitions, the final positions of the best finishing runners from each country are combined and the team with the lowest points total wins.

Athletes and teams of Japan, China and Iran have historically been the most successful of the championships. However, Qatar and Bahrain have become increasingly dominant since 2005, led by a number of East African-born athletes who have transferred allegiance to the small Middle-Eastern states.

The 2011 edition, set for February in Kathmandu, was postponed after the Nepalese government did not provide the requisite funds needed to host the event. China took over the hosting rights and held the 11th edition the following year in Qingzhen.

The 2020 edition of the race, originally set for March in Hong Kong, was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Editions

Edition Year Venue City Country Events
1 1991 Fukuoka Japan 8
2 1993 Jakarta Indonesia 8
3 1995 Chiba International Cross Country Chiba Japan 8
4 1997 Chiba International Cross Country Chiba Japan 8
5 1999 Enghelab Sport Complex (Men) Tehran Iran 4
(Women) Hong Kong Hong Kong 4
6 2001 Kathmandu Nepal 8
7 2004 Pune India 8
8 2005 Guiyang China 8
9 2007 Al Bisharat Golf Club Amman Jordan 8
10 2009 Al-Rafah Bahrain Hippodrome Manama Bahrain 8
2011 Not held Kathmandu Nepal 8
11 2012 Qingzhen China 8
12 2014 Fukuoka International Cross Country Fukuoka Japan 8
13 2016 Manama Bahrain 8
14 2018 Guiyang China 8
15 2020 Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic
16 2023 Gokarna Forest Resort Kathmandu Nepal 8
17 2024
18 2026 Laos

Champions

http://www.gbrathletics.com/ic/cxc.htm#AS

Senior

Year Men's senior race Women's senior race
Individual Team Individual Team
1991 Shozo Shimoju (JPN) Japan (JPN) Mun Gyong-Ae (PRK) North Korea (PRK)
1993 Hamid Sajjadi (IRI) India (IND) Minori Hayakari (JPN) Japan (JPN)
1995 Seiichi Miyajima (JPN) Japan (JPN) Atsumi Yashima (JPN) Japan (JPN)
1997 Saad Shaddad Al-Asmari (KSA) Saudi Arabia (KSA) Chiemi Takahashi (JPN) Japan (JPN)
1999 Ahmad Zarekar (IRI) Japan (JPN) Mizuki Noguchi (JPN) Japan (JPN)
2001 Jafar Babakhani (IRI) Sri Lanka (SRI) Yasuyo Iwamoto (JPN) Japan (JPN)
2004 Han Gang (CHN) China (CHN) Yumi Sato (JPN) Japan (JPN)
2005 Han Gang (CHN) Qatar (QAT) Li Helan (CHN) China (CHN)
2007 Ahmed Hassan Abdullah (QAT) Qatar (QAT) Maryam Yusuf Jamal (BHR) Bahrain (BHR)
2009 Ahmed Hassan Abdullah (QAT) Qatar (QAT) Maryam Yusuf Jamal (BHR) Japan (JPN)
2012 Alemu Bekele (BHR) Bahrain (BHR) Shitaye Eshete (BHR) Bahrain (BHR)
2014 Aweke Yimer (BHR) Bahrain (BHR) Tejitu Chalchissa (BHR) Bahrain (BHR)
2016 Albert Rop (BHR) Bahrain (BHR) Eunice Chumba (BHR) Bahrain (BHR)
2018 Peng Jianhua (CHN) Japan (JPN) Li Dan (CHN) Japan (JPN)

Junior

Year Men's junior race Women's junior race
Individual Team Individual Team
1991 Yasuyuki Watanabe (JPN) Japan (JPN) Qu Yunxia (CHN) China (CHN)
1993 Awad Saleh Nasser (YEM) Yemen (YEM) Noriko Wada (JPN) Japan (JPN)
1995 Tadayuki Ojima (JPN) Japan (JPN) Chiemi Takahashi (JPN) Japan (JPN)
1997 Mohamed Al-Shinan (KSA) Japan (JPN) Kumiko Hiyama (JPN) Japan (JPN)
1999 Zhong Haibo (CHN) Japan (JPN) Kaori Yoshida (JPN) Japan (JPN)
2001 Tomohiro Uemura (JPN) Japan (JPN) Mika Okunaga (JPN) Japan (JPN)
2004 Satoru Kitamura (JPN) Japan (JPN) Bao Guiying (CHN) Japan (JPN)
2005 Lin Xiangqian (CHN) China (CHN) Zhu Yanmei (CHN) China (CHN)
2007 Thamer Kamal Ali (QAT) Qatar (QAT) Monica Raut (IND) India (IND)
2009 Alemu Bekele (BHR) Bahrain (BHR) Shitaye Eshete (BHR) Bahrain (BHR)
2012 Shota Baba (JPN) Japan (JPN) Miyuki Uehara (JPN) Japan (JPN)
2014 Kazuto Kawabata (JPN) Japan (JPN) Yuka Kobayashi (JPN) Japan (JPN)
2016 Ali Abdi (BHR) Bahrain (BHR) Dalila Abdulkadir (BHR) Bahrain (BHR)
2018 Suolang Cairen (CHN) Japan (JPN) Yuna Wada (JPN) Japan (JPN)

All time medal table

As 2018

Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1 Japan 53 45 30 128
2 Bahrain 23 14 9 46
3 China 16 23 12 51
4 India 7 15 13 35
5 Qatar 6 2 5 13
6 Iran 4 7 16 27
7 Saudi Arabia 3 1 2 6
Yemen 3 1 2 6
9 Nepal 2 4 3 9
10 North Korea 2 1 2 5
11 Sri Lanka 1 1 2 4
12 South Korea 0 1 5 6
13 Jordan 0 1 2 3
14 Pakistan 0 1 1 2
15 United Arab Emirates 0 1 0 1
16 Singapore 0 0 2 2
Vietnam 0 0 2 2
18 Hong Kong 0 0 1 1
Indonesia 0 0 1 1
Thailand 0 0 1 1
Totals (20 entries) 120 118 111 349