1981 IAAF World Cross Country Championships

The 1981 IAAF World Cross Country Championships was held in Madrid, Spain, at the Hipódromo de la Zarzuela on March 28, 1981. A report on the event was given in the Glasgow Herald.^[1]

1981 IAAF World Cross Country Championships
Organisers	IAAF
Edition	9th
Date	March 28
Host city	Madrid, Spain
Venue	La Zarzuela Hippodrome
Events	3
Distances	12 km – Senior men 7.25 km – Junior men 4.41 km – Senior women
Participation	460 athletes from 39 nations
← 1980 Paris 1982 Rome →

Complete results for men,^[2] junior men,^[3] women,^[4] medallists, ^[5] and the results of British athletes^[6] were published.

Medallists

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
Individual
Senior men (12 km)	Craig Virgin  United States	35:05	Mohammed Kedir  Ethiopia	35:07	Fernando Mamede  Portugal	35:09
Junior men (7.25 km)	Mohammed Chouri  Tunisia	22:04	Yevgeniy Zherebin  Soviet Union	22:06	Keith Brantly  United States	22:07
Senior women (4.41 km)	Grete Waitz  Norway	14:07	Jan Merrill  United States	14:22	Yelena Sipatova  Soviet Union	14:22
Team
Senior men	Ethiopia	81	United States	114	Kenya	220
Junior men	United States	23	England	61	Canada	66
Senior women	Soviet Union	24	United States	36	Italy	89

Race results

Senior men's race (12 km)

Main article: 1981 IAAF World Cross Country Championships – Senior men's race

Individual race

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time
	Craig Virgin	United States	35:05
	Mohammed Kedir	Ethiopia	35:07
	Fernando Mamede	Portugal	35:09
4	Julian Goater	England	35:13
5	Antonio Prieto	Spain	35:18
6	Rob de Castella	Australia	35:20
7	Girma Berhanu	Ethiopia	35:22
8	Thom Hunt	United States	35:23
9	Alex Hagelsteens	Belgium	35:24
10	Pierre Levisse	France	35:26
11	Rod Dixon	New Zealand	35:30
12	El Hachami Abdenouz	Algeria	35:34
Full results

Teams

Rank	Team	Points
	Ethiopia Mohammed Kedir 2 Girma Berhanu 7 Dereje Nedi 13 Kebede Balcha 14 Miruts Yifter 15 Eshetu Tura 30 (Hana Girma) (32) (Tolossa Kotu) (75)	81
	United States Craig Virgin 1 Thom Hunt 8 Mark Nenow 17 Bill Donakowski 18 Bruce Bickford 19 George Malley 51 (Daniel Dillon) (63) (Mike McGuire) (80) (Mark Muggleton) (103)	114
	Kenya Jackson Ruto 22 Peter Koech 24 Alfred Nyasani 25 Sammy Mogene 36 Wilson Musonik 56 Some Muge 57 (Joseph Kiptum) (68) (Adriano Musonye) (147) (John Rotich) (200)	220
4	Spain	254
5	Australia	255
6	England	312
7	Algeria	350
8	Belgium	377
Full results

• Note: Athletes in parentheses did not score for the team result

Junior men's race (7.25 km)

Main article: 1981 IAAF World Cross Country Championships – Junior men's race

Individual race

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time
	Mohammed Chouri	Tunisia	22:04
	Yevgeniy Zherebin	Soviet Union	22:06
	Keith Brantly	United States	22:07
4	George Nicholas	United States	22:08
5	Paul Davies-Hale	England	22:19
6	John Butler	United States	22:21
7	Vincent Rousseau	Belgium	22:23
8	Salvatore Antibo	Italy	22:29
9	Francesco Panetta	Italy	22:32
10	Chris Hamilton	United States	22:32
11	Jonathan Richards	England	22:33
12	Dave Reid	Canada	22:37
Full results

Teams

Rank	Team	Points
	United States Keith Brantly 3 George Nicholas 4 John Butler 6 Chris Hamilton 10 (Peter Warner) (22) (Michael Pyeatt) (23)	23
	England Paul Davies-Hale 5 Jonathan Richards 11 Mark King 20 Christian Bloor 25 (Philip Dixon) (51) (Neil Rimmer) (88)	61
	Canada Dave Reid 12 Chris Brewster 14 Paul McCloy 16 Allen Hugli 24 (Marc Olesen) (39) (Mark Orzel) (63)	66
4	Italy	80
5	Belgium	118
6	Soviet Union	130
7	Portugal	135
8	Ireland	137
Full results

• Note: Athletes in parentheses did not score for the team result

Senior women's race (4.41 km)

Main article: 1981 IAAF World Cross Country Championships – Senior women's race

Individual race

Rank	Athlete	Country	Time
	Grete Waitz	Norway	14:07
	Jan Merrill	United States	14:22
	Yelena Sipatova	Soviet Union	14:22
4	Agnese Possamai	Italy	14:25
5	Tatyana Sychova	Soviet Union	14:25
6	Betty Springs	United States	14:28
7	Svetlana Ulmasova	Soviet Union	14:28
8	Debbie Scott	Canada	14:31
9	Tatyana Pozdnyakova	Soviet Union	14:34
10	Asunción Sinobas	Spain	14:38
11	Dorthe Rasmussen	Denmark	14:39
12	Dianne Zorn	New Zealand	14:39
Full results

Teams

Rank	Team	Points
	Soviet Union Yelena Sipatova 3 Tatyana Sychova 5 Svetlana Ulmasova 7 Tatyana Pozdnyakova 9 (Irina Bondarchuk) (21) (Giana Romanova) (32)	24
	United States Jan Merrill 2 Betty Springs 6 Julie Shea 13 Mary Shea 15 (Brenda Webb) (30) (Francie Larrieu) (36)	36
	Italy Agnese Possamai 4 Cristina Tomasini 23 Silvana Cruciata 29 Alba Milana 33 (Nadia Dandolo) (46) (Marina Loddo) (49)	89
4	New Zealand	90
5	Canada	96
6	England	106
7	Norway	123
8	Ireland	167
Full results

• Note: Athletes in parentheses did not score for the team result

Medal table (unofficial)

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States (USA)	2	3	1	6
2	Soviet Union (URS)	1	1	1	3
3	Ethiopia (ETH)	1	1	0	2
4	Norway (NOR)	1	0	0	1
	Tunisia (TUN)	1	0	0	1
6	England (ENG)	0	1	0	1
7	Canada (CAN)	0	0	1	1
	Italy (ITA)	0	0	1	1
	Kenya (KEN)	0	0	1	1
	Portugal (POR)	0	0	1	1
Totals (10 entries)		6	6	6	18

• Note: Totals include both individual and team medals, with medals in the team competition counting as one medal.

Participation

An unofficial count yields the participation of 460 athletes from 39 countries. This is in agreement with the official numbers as published.^[6]

•  Algeria (15)
•  Angola (14)
•  Australia (15)
•  Austria (6)
•  Belgium (21)
•  Canada (21)
•  Czechoslovakia (2)
•  Denmark (16)
•  England (21)
•  Ethiopia (8)
•  Finland (13)
•  France (20)
•  Greece (8)
•  Guinea (2)
•  Ireland (21)
•  Israel (3)
•  Italy (20)
•  Kenya (9)
•  Lebanon (1)
•  Luxembourg (1)
•  Morocco (5)
•  Netherlands (14)
•  New Zealand (15)
•  Northern Ireland (10)
•  Norway (6)
•  Poland (7)
•  Portugal (21)
•  Romania (1)
•  Saudi Arabia (14)
•  Scotland (20)
•  Soviet Union (19)
•  Spain (21)
•  Sweden (1)
•   Switzerland (6)
•  Tunisia (13)
•  Turkey (1)
•  United States (21)
•  Wales (20)
•  West Germany (8)

See also

• 1981 IAAF World Cross Country Championships – Senior men's race
• 1981 IAAF World Cross Country Championships – Junior men's race
• 1981 IAAF World Cross Country Championships – Senior women's race
• 1981 in athletics (track and field)