1973
Waragerm, Belgium: Despite the legacy of Nurmi, Ritola and Viren, Pekka Paivarinta becomes the first and, to date, the only Finn to win the World Cross Country title. The Turku caretaker overhauled Spain’s Mariano Haro in the final sprint for the line to win by one tenth of a second. Paivarinta is also the only man ever to have won the world title wearing a hat. He always wore a red cap to keep his long hair out of his eyes!
Italy’s Pigni and Scotland’s Jim Brown are convincing winners of the women’s and junior men’s races.

1974
Monza, Italy: The ecstatic home crowd are treated to an Italian victory when Paola Pigni retains her title, winning by 40 metres. Belgium’s Erik De Beck becomes one of the most surprising winners in the history of the event when he beats the luckless Haro by a second.
Perhaps De Beck’s triumph would have been less unexpected had it been widely known that he was being coached by the old master himself, Gaston Roelants. Rich Kimball, from the USA, takes the junior men’s race.

1975
Rabat, Morocco: Mariano Haro has to settle for second place yet again as Scotland’s Ian Stewart uses his track speed to great effect on the soft and sandy course. In his three World Cross defeats, Haro was denied a title by a total of less than three seconds.
American runners Julie Brown, just 20, and Bob Thomas are the women’s and junior men’s champions.

1976
Chepstow, Wales: Carmen Valero becomes the first Spanish woman to achieve a major international victory. She beats the Soviet Union’s Tatyana Kazankina, soon to make her name as a phenomenal middle distance runner, by 20 seconds.
Portugal’s Carlos Lopes wins the senior men’s race and Eric Hulst continues the run of success for the US junior men.

1977
Dusseldorf, Germany: Leon Schots continues the Belgian tradition and also leads his country to the team title with a five second margin over Lopes.
Valero retained her women’s title by just holding off the Soviet Union’s Lyudmila Bragina, the 1972 Olympic 1500m champion. Thom Hunt won the junior men’s title to give the USA its fourth consecutive victory.

1978
Glasgow, Scotland: In appallingly muddy conditions, Norway’s Grete Waitz wins the first of her five titles by putting 30 seconds between her and Romania’s Natalia Marasescu. The latter gets some consolation when Romania’s women achieve their country’s one and only team triumph.
Ireland’s John Treacy gets his first gold medal while England’s Micky Morton takes the junior men’s title, a race in which a certain Said Aouita finishes 37th.

1979
Limerick, Ireland: John Treacy triumphed, once more in the mud, and in front of a delighted home crowd. Inspired by the support, he wins by nine seconds from Poland’s future Olympic steeplechase champion Bronislaw Malinowski.
Grete Waitz wins by an even bigger margin, 26 seconds, for her second gold medal, while Belgium’s Eddie DePauw took the junior men’s race.

1980
Paris, France: Craig Virgin became the first ever American winner of the men’s race after a dramatic final 200 metres when he moved from third to first, beating Germany’s Hans-Jurgen Orthmann by just a second.
By contrast, Grete Waitz has the biggest margin in the history of the women’s race, 44 seconds to acquire her third title. Spain’s Jose Garcia is the junior men’s winner.

1981
Madrid, Spain: Ethiopian and Kenyan runners make their debuts at the event but inexperience shows. Mohammed Kedir miscounts and makes his effort one lap too early, leaving the way for Craig Virgin to capture his second title. Kedir has enough in reserve to secure second place and help take the team title. Kenya finish third to start an East African domination of the team race that persists to this day.
Grete Waitz wins her fourth women’s title while Tunisia’s Mohammed Chouri becomes the first African to take the junior men’s title. Behind him, Belgium’s Vincent Rousseau finishes seventh, The Italians Salvatore Antibo and Panetta are eighth and ninth and Spain’s Abel Anton is 17th.

1982
Rome, Italy: Kedir makes no errors this time and takes the men’s race five seconds ahead of the USA’s Alberto Salazar, who had led most of the way.
Africa figure at both ends of the men’s race since Libya’s Selwan Philemone finishes in 167th position, nearly five minutes adrift of the man in front of him.
Romania’s Maricica Puica ends Grete Waitz’s reign as the queen of cross country and Zurubachew Gelaw makes it an Ethiopian double by winning the junior men’s race in which Spain’s Martin Fiz, who more than a decade later won the marathon at the World Championships, finishes 16th.

1983
Gateshead, England: Ethiopia’s Bekele Debele becomes the youngest winner in the IAAF era. Only eight days after his 20th birthday, he prevails in the closest finish ever. Portugal’s Carlos Lopes and Kenya’s Some Muge, the silver and bronze medallist, are both given the same time as Debele.
Grete Waitz regained her women’s crown and Ethiopia’s Fesha Abebe takes the junior men’s title.

1984
New York, USA: Maricica Puica regains her women’s title and, after eight years, Carlos Lopes stands on top of the medal podium again.
Spain’s Pierre Casacuberta overtakes Ethiopia’s Doju Tessema 150 metres from the line to become the last man outside East Africa to win the junior men’s race.

1985

Lisbon, Portugal: Carlos Lopes defies the odds and wins by four seconds from Kenya’s Paul Kipkoech in front of an ecstatic home crowd. Ethiopia wins its fifth consecutive men’s team title but, ominously, Kenya are a very close second.
England’s Zola Budd wins the women’s race by 23 seconds, running barefoot, while Kenya’s first individual title was achieved by Kip Kimeli who won the junior men’s race by an impressive 19 seconds.

1986
Neuchatel, Switzerland: Kenya’s John Ngugi wins the first of his numerous victories on his first appearance in Europe. Ngugi shared the lead in the final stages with Ethiopia’s Abebe Mekonnen before pulling away to win by two seconds. Kenya wins its first ever senior men’s team title.

1997
Turin, Italy: The bold idea of transforming the inner city Parco del Valentino proved to be a resounding success and the 15,000 spectators witness some outstanding races. Paul Tergat notches up his hat trick of titles but only after a ferocious fight over the final two kilometres with Morocco’s Salah Hissou. However Tergat had saved something for last and spurted past Hissou in the final metres. He acquired his eighth world cross gold medal thanks to Kenya predictably taking the team title.
The senior women’s race had an equally thrilling finish with Derartu Tulu regaining the title she had won in 1995 after a battle in the closing stages with Britain’s Paula Radcliffe and 1996 champion Wami. The individual gold and bronze medallist helped Ethiopia win the team contest.
Kenyan pair Elijah Korir and Rose Kosgei took the junior races in tactical triumphs which saw Kenya comfortably take both junior team titles.