Nicholas Kipkorir and Daniel Ebenyo spearhead a powerful Kenyan squad preparing to joust for individual and team medals at the World Road Running Championships in Copenhagen over the weekend, while Agnes Ngetich and Lilian Kasait Rengeruk lead their women’s charge.
While medal success at the Olympics and World Championships has narrowly eluded Kipkorir – his fourth in the Tokyo Olympics 5000m was his best finish – he has excelled on the road, with his 58:03 half marathon in Lisbon in March this year the fourth fastest of all time.
Also in Kipkorir’s favour is his knowledge of Sunday’s half marathon course – he won the Copenhagen Half Marathon last September in course record time of 58:23 and with a 10km road best of 26:51 is in with more than a shout for podium honours.
Ebenyo has enjoyed global success, having earned a silver medal in the 10 000m at the World Championships in Budapest in 2023 and bronze at this year’s World Cross Country Championships in Florida in January.
Ebenyo, who won the 12km CITYRUN in Cape Town in 2021 in a fast 34:01, will want to go one better than his silver medal (in 59:14), 4 seconds behind compatriot and the world’s first sub-2 hour marathoner, Sabastian Sawe, at the last World Road Running Championships in Riga, Latvia, in 2023, when Kenya enjoyed a clean-sweep of medals in the men’s half marathon.
Gideon Kipkertich Rono, second fastest in Sunday’s field with a personal best of 58:38, and Michael Kiplangat Temoi, 7th fastest at 59:11, provide strong back up in Kenya’s aspirations to retain the team gold medal in the half marathon.
If the Kenyan men’s team have a look of invincibility with four among the participants’ fastest seven, their women appear even stronger, with all four in the top six in Sunday’s race.
Few who witnessed Ngetich’s demolition of the field in the World Cross Country Championships in Florida in January would bet against the Kenyan on Sunday. She heads the field with her 1:03:04 national half marathon record, with the world record over 10km of 28:46 in her back pocket. But both of those road performances came in 2024, and with a 2026 half marathon best of 1:10:25 set in New York in March, her rivals may hold some hope.
Similarly her teammate, Lilian Kasait Rengeruk, who claimed silver in the 5km at the World Champs in Lativa in 2023, recorded her best times two years back, with a 1:03:32 at Valencia and a 5th in the final of the Paris Olympics 10 000m. It could be Kenyan airforce’s Daislah Jerono, who set her personal best of 1:05:21 in March and proved her fitness with a 10km personal best in tough conditions in Cape Town last month, who comes through strongly to challenge for a podium position.
Only two Ethiopians, Tsigie Gebreselama (best time of 1:04:21 and the fastest in 2026) and Ftaw Zeray (best of 1:05:12) separate the four Kenyans in the start-up list.
While Kenyan success is strongly anticipated in Sunday’s Half Marathon, this is less so in Saturday’s 5km and mile road races, where American and Europe-based athletes are likely to challenge strongly.
The two Carolines, Nyaga and Gitonga, will challenge strongly for Kenyan medals in the women’s 5km, with Nyaga’s 14:19 personal best the fastest of the field and Gitonga’s 14:26, third behind Ethiopian Likina Amebaw’s 14:23.
Seventh-fastest going into Saturday’s 5km race, Mathew Kipsang, could have his work cut out behind a strong field headed by top French athlete, Jimmy Gressier, and with vastly-talented Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway also likely to compete strongly.
Mirriam Cherop will be going for gold in the mile, her personal best of 4:22,54 the fastest in the field, although USA’s Addison Wiley has the fastest time of the year to her name, while Kyumbe Munguti, 11th fastest with a best of 4:00,67 could surprise and will expect to finish well under the four-minute threshold.
Meanwhile the news that the World Athletics Championships will be hosted in Nairobi in 2029 for the first in Africa is a boost to the rising popularity of athletics on the continent.
The decision, made during the 242nd World Athletics Council Meeting in Budapest on Monday and Tuesday (14-15), means that the World Athletics Championships will be held in Africa for the first time when the Kenyan capital stages the 2029 edition, before returning to Germany for a third time two years later, this time in Munich’s iconic Olympic Stadium.
“We were fortunate to have four outstanding bids for 2029 and 2031, and this was not an easy decision for the Council,” said World Athletics President Sebastian Coe. “The quality, ambition and commitment demonstrated by all four candidates underlines the strength and global appeal of the World Athletics Championships.
“With this Council decision today, we continue to fulfil our mission of growing athletics worldwide with the hosting of our World Athletics Championships in Asia, Africa and Europe over its next three editions.
“Nairobi and Munich ultimately presented two compelling propositions. They offer very different but equally exciting opportunities for our sport, and I am delighted that we can now begin working with both cities to stage two world-class championships.”
