GREAT North Run organisers are close to having every country in the world represented at the event in Newcastle next month.

More than 90 per cent of the world’s countries will be represented at the iconic event,

with the latest country to be announced being San Marino, the 175th nation out of 193 UN Member States.

This followed hot on the heels of St Kitts and Nevis runners announcing their involvement hours earlier.

Other nations taking part in the run between Newcastle and South Shields on September 11 include Uzbekistan, Suriname, and Vanuatu.

After becoming the first running event in the world to welcome a million runners over the finish line, organisers are still keen to fulfil the challenge of having a runner from every country at the race.

It will certainly be a challenge, with tiny island countries such as Tuvalu - home to only 10,000 people - making it smaller than the Yorkshire town of Wetherby.

But organisers are working hard to achieve their goal, and have worked with businesses such as Ringtons, who supplied the representative of Rwanda after recruiting a budding runner from its tea estate in Sorwathe.

Great North Run communications director David Hart hopes that the ongoing Olympic Games could inspire a runner from one of the remaining countries to come forward. He said: “This will give the whole weekend a truly global feel and I’m sure it will make it even more special.”