The World Cross Country Championships on March 24th25th have made the expected move from Dublin to Brussels because of the foot-and-mouth epidemic.

Officials from the Athletics Association of Ireland (AAI) were yesterday forced to abandon their plans to stage the championships at Leopardstown racecourse after receiving notification from the Department of Agriculture of the risks involved if the event went ahead.

As soon as that decision was made, the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) announced that a course in Brussels would stage the event on the same weekend. A statement from the IAAF headquarters in Monte Carlo said that they "accept the decision with regret but fully understand that the extraordinary circumstances left the Athletics Association of Ireland with no alternative but to cancel the event."

Brussels had emerged on Monday as the most likely alternative to Leopardstown, and according to the IAAF, there were successful negotiations with the Belgian Athletics Federation, and the venue was supported by the city authorities and the Belgian Government. The course is situated in a park just outside the city and hosts the annual Fortis Cross Cup, an IAAF cross country permit meeting.

Even though Belgium had a minor foot-and-mouth scare last week, the country has been given the all-clear and there are no extra safety measures in place beyond the normal restrictions in animal transport. There were no restrictions put on sporting events, and this will be the first time that the country has staged the event since 1973.

For the AAI, the difficult decision of abandoning Leopardstown brings a number of complications - not least a major blow to morale within the association. International secretary and event director Chris Wall says that it's too early to even estimate the financial loss, but the more immediate disappointment is to see 14 months' work gone to waste.

"We just don't know yet what the final cost for us will be," he said. "A lot of our expenditure has already gone out on things like hotel deposits and we just don't know how much we will get back. But of course the national interest was going to dictate what we would do.

"We are all devastated but you just can't take the threat of this disease lightly in any shape or form. And the final cost will fade into insignificance in comparison to the money saved if we keep this disease out of the country."

Notification from the Department of Agriculture on Monday night alerted the AAI to the problems they would confront if they went ahead with the event, and the threat it would be present to the disease-free status of the country.

"But there is another downside," says Wall. "The confidence in Dublin as a sporting venue will be dented by this. We had 70 countries due to travel here, many of whom don't have a problem with foot-and-mouth, and they will look on this negatively.

"In my view we are one of the few sporting organisations with genuine hopes of staging an international event. And this was going to be the biggest athletics event ever staged in the country. But it may not be as easy to persuade them to come back after this."

Around 1,000 athletes and 250 media personnel were due in Dublin and a number of hotels, including the Montrose in Stillorgan, had been designated as official accommodation.

"Right now we will have to assist the Belgians in any way we can," said the AAI event press officer Liam Hennessy.

For the athletes, the news also brings obvious disappointment. "It is a huge anti-climax," said national champion Seamus Power, who is gearing for the long-course race. "We were all looking forward to running in Leopardstown, and I feel very sorry for the organisers. This will be remembered as the year when the World Cross Country Championships were supposed to come to Dublin, but they didn't.

"All we can do now is focus on Brussels, and in that regard I'm glad they've made some decision. I've run the Grand Prix race there a few times and it is a tough course. We've also been forced to alter our training a little bit because we can't get any more races here. But it does show how important farming is to us and how willing we are to offer support."

Noel Berkeley, who is also set for the long-course race after finishing fourth at last month's national championships, said: "It does take a lot away from the event for us. But I actually think it's a little bit over the top. There's a lot of hype going around and I think it probably could have gone ahead in Leopardstown. But I'm not so sure if the racecourse officials wanted it there anyway."

Up to 25,000 spectators were expected to attend the event in Leopardstown over the two days, particularly because of Sonia O'Sullivan's strong hope of victory in the long or short-course race (or both). It is possible that the event could return to Dublin in the near future, but if it does it is unlikely to include such a strong Irish challenge for individual honours.