Copenhagen is best known as a Waterfront, bicycle-friendly European capital with a deep history in fairy-tales. And for a handful of the world’s leading distance athletes, this weekend could have a fairy-tale ending with individual and team medals at stake at the World Road Running Championships, comprising the half marathon, 5km and 1 mile road races.
Once again, the African quest for titles and podium positions is powerful, with athletes from Great Rift Valley countries, in particular Ethiopia and Kenya, favoured to dominate in Sunday’s half marathon. The USA, Europe and Asia will likely feature more strongly in tomorrow’s 5km and mile events.
Buoyed by the news that Nairobi will host the 2029 World Athletics Championships, the Kenyan team exuded confidence in the Danish capital. Rightly so, with athletes of the calibre of top-ranked Nicholas Kipkorir and Agnes Ngetich in their line-up for the 21km race.
Without pacers in championship races and given Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha’s recent 56:51 show-stopper awaiting ratification, world records may be hard to come by, but with the strength of the field – the fastest 17 in the men’s field all have run faster than an hour for the half marathon – and flat, fast courses, expect personal, national and area records to tumble.
At 27, Kipkorir has recently made the step up to the half marathon from an impressive track and 10km background and used his track speed to good effect to record a best time of 58:08 in Lisbon in March – 15 seconds inside his time in winning last year’s Copenhagen Half Marathon.
He has tasted podium success at the World Road Running Championships, having won the bronze medal in the 5km in Riga, Latvia, in 2023 but arguably his best distance lies with the longer event.
Kipkorir’s strongest opposition could come from teammate Gideon Rono (who boasts the second fastest PB in the field of 58:38), Swedish athlete Andreas Almgren, whose 58:41 half marathon and 26:45 10km bests have been achieved in the last twelve months and who will enjoy ‘home support’ as a near neighour, Ethiopian Tadese Worku and perennial runner-up Daniel Ebenyo, who boasts World and African Championship, Commonwealth and World Road Running Championship silver medals.
One world record expected to go is that of the women-only half marathon, currently at 1:05:16, set by Peres Jepchirchir at the World Half Marathon Championships in Poland in 2020. Four athletes in the field have personal best times faster than that (achieved in mixed gender races) and Ngetich (1:03:04), Kenya’s Lilian Rengeruk (1:03:32) and the Ethiopian pair of Tsigie Gebreselama (1:04:48) and Ftaw Zeray (1:05:12) are leading contenders for the title.
Gebreselama and Zeray and a third Kenyan, Daisilah Jerono (1:05:21), are the in-form athletes, having achieved their times this year, while South Africa’s Glenrose Xaba is unlikely to be far off the pace in search of a national record faster than 67 minutes.
French athlete Jimmy Gressier shot to prominence with gold and silver medals (10 000m and 5000m) at the World Championships in Tokyo last year. He took third in the half marathon in Latvia in 2023 but could be tough to beat in the 5km tomorrow on the first day of the championship.
Ethiopia’s Addisu Yihune is second fastest in the field behind Gressier’s 12:51 (12:54), with Swiss athlete Dominic Lobalu (13:00), Ethiopians Mezgebu Sime and Biniam Mehary ((13:01 and 13:04) and South Africa’s Maxime Chaumeton (13:06) the next best. High profile Norwegian track star, Jakob Ingebrigtsen, is also likely to contend strongly.
The two Kenyan Carolines, Nyaga and Gitonga, will compete 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.
American athletes could dominate the podium in the one mile contest with Yared Nuguse and Vincent Ciattei heading the field ahead of closest challenges Jack Anstey (Australia), Andre Sousa (Brazil) and Romain Mornet (France). Americans Addison Wiley and Gracie Hyde have the fastest times of the season in the women’s mile, but could find Kenya’s Mirriam Cherop and Ethiopia’s Freweyni Hailu tough competitors in the dash for the finish line.
