Kampala — EXPERIENCED coach Benjamin Longilos has said he will not travel to Edinburgh, Scotland for this weekend's World Cross-country Championships.

The Uganda Athletics Federation (UAF) had trusted the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF) officer, to handle the team but he doesn't have valid travel documents.

"My passport expired and renewing it has been a strenuous process. I have given up and I wish the team good luck," Longilos told Daily Monitor yesterday.

Some junior and senior athletes have been undergoing residential training in Kapchorwa but Longilos said he never managed to make it there to give them some tips.

"UAF wrote but I didn't get clearance to go to the camp," he added. UAF organizing secretary Faustino Kiwa had earlier told Daily Monitor that a Kenyan coach was handling the team in camp but its not clear whether he will travel with the team.

Longilos' experience will however be dearly missed in Edinburgh as the coach has been to the Olympics and led Uganda to a fourth-place finish in the 1998 World Cross-country.

Other UPDF coaches Gordon Ahimbisibwe and Mackaybeth Akankwasa, who had been nominated by the technical committee to handle the team were later dropped under unclear circumstances.

"I waited for an appointment letter in vain,," said Ahimbisibwe, who led the senior men's team to a bronze medal at last year's edition in Mombasa.

UAF General Secretary Beatrice Ayikoru couldn't be reached for comment as she didn't pick her mobile telephone.

The team leaves today.