WXC Tallahassee 26 senior women's preview: new champion to be crowned

Kenyan athletes have won the past nine senior women’s titles and while two-time champion Beatrice Chebet will not be defending her crown, her compatriots will be going for gold again at the World Athletics Cross Country Championships Tallahassee 26 on Saturday (10).

With Chebet missing the 2026 season to start a family, a new champion will be crowned at the Apalachee Regional Park and the race for the title will be fierce. Her compatriot Agnes Ngetich, the world 10km record-holder, has the chance to build on the bronze she claimed behind Chebet in Bathurst in 2023.

Ngetich placed fourth as part of a Kenyan top four led by Chebet in Belgrade in 2024 and finished in the same position in the world 10,000m final in Tokyo. Her most recent cross-country outing came at the Sirikwa Classic – a World Athletics Cross Country Tour Gold event – which she won in February.

Maurine Chebor won the national trials in October. She also finished second at the Kenyan Cross Country Championships in February and claimed the Kenyan police cross-country title last year. The 21-year-old has shown a strong return to form following some injury struggles in 2024 and should be among the leading contenders when she makes her international championship debut.

Ngetich and Chebor will be joined on the Kenyan team by national trials runner-up Brenda Jepchumba Kenei, Joyline Chepkemoi, Rebecca Mwangi and Caren Chebet as they look to claim the senior women’s team title for the third consecutive edition and the eighth time in 10 editions.

The senior women’s team title has been won by either Kenya or Ethiopia at each World Cross Country Championships since 1995. Senayet Getachew, the world U20 champion in 2023, and Asayech Ayichew, who finished second in the U20 race in 2024, both step up to Ethiopia’s senior squad this time.

Ayichew won the Jan Meda International Cross Country, which serves as the Ethiopian Championships, in Addis Ababa in November and the 20-year-old’s track season included Diamond League appearances in Xiamen, Rome and Eugene. In Addis Ababa she placed two spots ahead of marathon specialist Shure Demise, who also features on the team for Tallahassee, along with world U20 3000m champion Aleshign Baweke, Alem Tsadik and Lemlem Nibret, who finished fifth and then eighth in the past two world U20 cross-country races.

Uganda has claimed a team medal in four of the past five editions and should be a strong force again. Joy Cheptoyek, who won the national championships in Mbale in November and finished seventh in the world 10,000m final in Tokyo, leads the team alongside Sarah Chelangat, who placed fifth in Belgrade two years ago.

Cheptoyek won the national title by 26 seconds, finishing ahead of Rispa Cherop, Kereen Chemusto and Martha Chemutai. The trio also feature on the team alongside national 10,000m champion Rebecca Chelangat.

Weini Kelati Frezghi decided to extend her cross-country career in an attempt to secure a host nation team place in Tallahassee and it paid off as the 29-year-old won the trial race in Portland in December. It was redemption of sorts following her fourth-place finishes in both the 5000m and 10,000m at the US Championships, which saw her narrowly miss qualifying for the World Championships in Tokyo.

“I thought that last year was going to be my last cross-country race,” said Kelati Frezghi, who finished 14th at the 2024 World Cross Country Championships and 21st at the 2023 edition, “but when I heard that the World Cross Country Championships were going to be in the US, I thought ‘why not try to make the team and represent USA and show the world we can be competitive’.”

The first six athletes in that race in Portland made the host nation team, including runner-up Katie Izzo, who ran as part of the mixed relay team in Belgrade in 2024, and Ednah Kurgat, who was USA’s top finisher at the 2023 World Cross in 18th place.

Others to watch at the Apalachee Regional Park include Great Britain’s European cross-country silver medallist Megan Keith and Burundi’s Francine Niyomukunzi, who regularly competes on the Cross Country Tour and won last year’s Gold race in Albufeira. Australia’s Lauren Ryan finished ninth, one place ahead of Keith, in the world 10,000m final in Tokyo and the pair will meet again in Tallahassee.

Jess Whittington for World Athletics