GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Furman head cross country/track and field coach Robert Gary has been chosen the head senior men’s coach for Team USA at the 2013 International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Cross Country Championships.

“I am very excited to have been selected to coach another national team for USATF,” said Gary.  “It is a great honor to assist our country’s best distance runners in any way that I can, while also representing Furman on the international level. The World Cross Country Championships is quite simply the hardest race in the world.”

This year’s championships, will be held March 24 in Bydgoszcz, Poland, mark the 40th anniversary of the event.  Six senior men’s  athletes from Team USA will compete in a 12 kilometer race, while six athletes will also represent the USA in a junior men’s and senior women’s eight kilometer race.  Junior women will compete in a 6 kilometer event.

Gary served as an assistant coach for Team USA at the 2011 IAAF World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, and as the head coach for the U.S. junior team at the 2011 IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Punta Umbria, Spain.  During the 2010 season, Gary was Team USA’s U-23 distance coach at the North America, Central America, and Caribbean Athletic Association (NACAC) meet in Toluca, Mexico.