KIPLIMO, NGETICH DOMINATE IN ATHLETICS WORLD CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS.
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2026 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved, used with permission.
TALLAHASSEE (10-Jan) – In sunny and warm conditions, Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo and Kenya’s Agnes Ngetich steamrolled their rivals at the 46th IAAF World Cross Country Championships held at Apalachee Regional Park, winning by a combined 60 seconds. The 25-year-old Kiplimo, winner of last October’s Bank of America Chicago Marathon, pulled away early on the last of the five-kilometer laps to win the senior’s third consecutive victory. Ngetic, 24, forced himself to break away early in the race and ran almost the entire 10 kilometers alone. Today’s gold medal represented her first individual world title.
KIPLIMO IS TAKING HIS TIME
Kiplimo ran full of confidence today. He ignored the fast, early pace of American Wesley Kiptu, who led the first three kilometers in 8:39. Kiplimo remained on the hunt where he could keep his eyes on his main rivals Berihu Aregawi of Ethiopia and Daniel Ebenyo of Kenya.
“I think for me I was just coming to have a good race,” Kiplimo told reporters when asked about his strategy today. He added: “My plan was just to wait for the last 4-K, so I think the last 4-KI started to accelerate.”
Kiplimo moved closer to the front and was running in fourth place at the 4-K mark. He was joined by Aregawi and his Ethiopian teammates Tadese Worku and Biniam Mehari, Ebenyo, and his Ugandan teammate Delphine Chelimo among others. He wanted to be aware of all possible threats.
“I knew I had to make sure I was in first place to see who would try to push the pace,” Kiplimo explained.
By the 7-K point, Kiplimo, Ebenyo, Mehari, Aregawi and Worku had pulled away, and after one kilometer it was Kiplimo, Ebenyo and Aregawi who won the medals for the bell lap. Kiplimo saved his best run for the final lap, and in the ninth kilometer he took the lead for good. He left Ebenyo and Aregawi with relative ease to finish 18 seconds apart. He won in 28:18, an incredibly fast time for this course, which included sand, a mud pit, a water hazard and a number of logs to be hurdled.
“It wasn’t easy, it was hard,” Kiplimo said when asked by a reporter if he was surprised by how easily he won the race. “Those guys were strong. For me, I have to believe in the training I’ve been doing.”
Kiplimo also won bronze in the team event, which the Kenyans won with 30 points, just four points better than Ethiopia’s 34. The United States is fourth with 81 points (Parker Wolfe is 12th) and France is fifth with 92 (the 10,000m world champion who hopes he was a champion for me. 15th).
RECEIVER IS TRANSMITTING EARLY
There was far less drama in the senior women’s race. Ngetich wasn’t interested in turning around in the early stages, and with a 3-K split (9:06) she already had a six-second lead in the three-woman chase group; Joy Cheptoyek from Uganda and Senayet Getachew and Asayech Ayichew from Ethiopia. Running steady, even through obstacles, Ngetic increased his lead with every lap.
“After one lap I seemed a little slow,” he told reporters. “So let me try to push.”
His only company on the last leg were fans and a few runners. He soloed down the finish line to win in 31:28, a time that would have won the 10,000m, and was 42 seconds clear of his nearest rival, Cheptojek. It was the second largest victory in the history of these championships.
With her victory, a Kenyan woman has now won the individual title in ten consecutive editions of these championships, dating back to Florence Kiplagat’s victory in 2009 in Amman, Jordan.
“If the title was in Kenya, I would have to fight for it,” he said, sounding serious. “It’s been nine times since I didn’t want to lose it.”
Ngetich was also awarded with a team silver medal. Ethiopia won the gold with just 19 points (third, fourth, fifth and seventh), while Uganda got the bronze medal with 37 points. The USA was 4th with 83 points, bested by Edna Kurgat in tenth place. US cross country champion Wayne Kelati, who was 11th at the halfway point, struggled in the second half of the race to finish 40th.
“I was running by myself,” said an elated Kurgat, the 2023 US cross country champion. “The cheerleading squad there was great. I liked it.”
HULL’S KICK BRINGS MIXED RELAY GOLD TO AUSTRALIA
In the medley 4 x 2km relay, Australia received a strong challenge from France but eventually prevailed. Linden Hall, who attended Florida State University here 12 years ago, gave Australia the lead about nine seconds into the second period. He felt very comfortable running at Apalachee Regional Park, even with the extra obstacles added by race organizers.
“Obviously the course is a lot different than when we ran it in college,” he told Race Results Weekly. “Running off the back loop, it all came back to me. I’ve had so many sessions and workouts here. You knew you had that advantage.”
But in the third game, Antoine Senard gave the French team the lead, and in the last game, France had a slight advantage. Senard handed France’s national 1500m record holder Agate Guillemot, while Australia’s Jack Anstey passed the armband to 2000m world record holder Jessica Hull, just a few paces behind.
“I saw Jack with the Frenchman and I said this is perfect,” Hull told reporters. “I have a habit of going out really hard in the first 400, and he set me up great to get off the agate.”
Hull, who won the 2024 Olympic 1500m silver medal, was simply too strong for Guillemot, especially over the hurdles behind. At the finish line, she was three seconds ahead of the Frenchwoman to give Australia the gold medal, 22:23 – 22:26. Ethiopia won bronze with a score of 22:34.
“As a team we ran out of our skins and did everything we had to do,” Hull said.
The American team took fifth place. They took the lead after a strong first game from Ethan Strand, but slipped back in the middle legs driven by Sage Hurta-Klecker and Wes Porter. Gracie Morris ran a strong anchor leg, kept Kenya in sight and finished just one second behind the African powerhouse.
“I think I just left it too late,” Morris told reporters. “I feel like I was able to close pretty hard.”
INCREDIBLE PERFORMANCE FOR KENYA MEN IN U20 U20
The Kenyan men had a dream race in the under-20 competition. They scored a perfect score of 10 points to finish in the top four. Franklin Kibet and Emmanuel Kiprono took turns before the final left turn, landing just before the finish, with Kibet winning the sprint, 23:18 to 23:20. Their compatriot Andrew Kipto Alamisa was third (23:28) while Andrew Kiptu was fourth (23:42).
“I’m very happy with my win and the team gold,” Kibet told the World Athletics flash quotes team. We trained together so it’s good to celebrate as a team. The course was tough, but I was determined and trained well, focusing on speed first.”
The silver medal was won by Uganda with 31 points, and surprisingly, the bronze medal was won by the USA team (75 points). Cal Poly’s Tyler Daylak was their top finisher (16th overall), despite the fact that he ran most of the race in just his left shoe. His right shoe came off on the second lap in a mud pit.
“It fell into the mud in the back,” said Dylak, who still hadn’t retrieved his lost shoe. “And I just used that as an opportunity to work through my running soreness and still focus on the race. When things go wrong in a race, you always want to plan for the worst and hope for the best.”
Marta Alemayo of Ethiopia, who successfully defended her title in Belgrade two years ago, had a dominant performance in the women’s under-20 race. He beat teammate Vosane Asefa by 26 seconds in 18:52 to 19:18. Uganda’s Charity Cherop took the bronze in 19:19.
“I’m very happy with my second gold medal in a row and I’m joined by Vosane on the podium,” Alemayo told the flash quotes team. “My next plan is to run indoors and hopefully compete in the World Indoor Championships in March.”
Both Uganda and Kenya scored 29 points, but Uganda won the tiebreaker (their fourth runner finished 10th to Uganda’s 11th). Ethiopia could not score as a team because they did not field a full squad due to the refusal of visas for the athletes.
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The venue and date of the 2028 World Athletics Championships have not yet been decided by World Athletics.
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