Bellahouston Park will stage next year's event almost half a century after it staged the World Cross Country Champs.

Rumours have been swirling all winter that Britain is set to host the European Cross Country Championships soon and European Athletics confirmed on Friday (April 24) that the 2027 event will go to Bellahouston Park in Glasgow, Scotland.

It means British endurance running fans will get the chance to see athletes of the calibre of Nadia Battocletti, Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Jimmy Gressier up close, while British contenders could include Innes Fitzgerald and Megan Keith among others.

Cross-country fans with long memories will remember the 1978 World Cross at Bellhouston Park most especially for the senior victories by John Treacy and Grete Waitz. The weather was also memorable, although not in a good way, with torrential rain, wind and a challenging muddy course.

Treacy became the youngest ever winner of a world cross country title at that stage as the Irish athlete was only 20 years old and studying accountancy at Providence College, Rhode Island. Such was his dominance, he blew kisses to the crowds in the closing stages and then returned to win the title again 12 months later in Limerick.

Tony Simmons was the first Englishman home in fourth with Nat Muir the first Scottish athlete in seventh and Steve Jones the first Welshman in 11th – this being an era where British home countries entered individual teams.

Waitz won a women's race by a whopping 30 seconds despite it being just under 5km in distance. The first British athlete was Joyce Smith in ninth, representing Britain.

In the junior men's race, Mick Morton, a former footballer who had only been running seriously for three years, won by 13 seconds and was pictured on the cover of AW with a certain Said Aouita alongside him (pictured below). Aouita faded to 34th but would go on to break world records at 1500m, 3000m and 5000m in addition to winning Olympic and world titles at 5000m.

The European Cross Country Championships has only been staged in Britain three times in the past – in Alnwick in 1994 and 1995 together with Edinburgh in 2003. The latter event was so accessible, the AW team, who were based in Peterborough at the time, simply took a day trip from Stansted Airport to cover the meeting.

British athletes usually enjoy a lot of success, too. In 2003, for example, Paula Radcliffe won the senior women's race and led Britain to team gold, whereas the under-20 women's squad also won team golds at that championship.

Edinburgh went on to hold the World Cross Country Championships in 2008 and, in addition to Glasgow in 1978, the only other British hosts of this global event are Chepstow in 1976, Gateshead in 1983, Durham in 1995 and Belfast in 1999.

This means it will be 19 years since Britain held a major international cross-country championships by the time Glasgow 2027 comes around.

Elsewhere, European Athletics has also announced that the 2028 European Athletics Championships will be staged in Silesia, Poland, on the eve of the Los Angeles Olympics.

It is the first time the event has been held on Polish soil.