WRRC Copenhagen 26 preview: women's mile

The women’s mile at the World Athletics Road Running Championships Copenhagen 26 brings together several athletes who will complete a major competition treble across consecutive weekends when they race in the Danish capital on Saturday (19).

Freweyni Hailu, Addison Wiley, Sarah Billings and Agathe Guillemot all competed at the Wanda Diamond League Final in Brussels before running at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship Budapest 26 a week later. Now they will clash in Copenhagen as they race for road mile honours on the first day of the championships.

Ethiopia’s Hailu will be looking to build on her runner-up finish at the last edition of the World Road Running Championships in Riga in 2023. Since then, she has become a two-time world indoor champion and she finished sixth in the 1500m at the World Championships in Tokyo last year.

The 25-year-old has had a busy few weeks. After a series of top-three finishes on the Diamond League circuit, Hailu won the 5000m title at the series final in Brussels. She then travelled to Budapest where she contested a 1500m and 5000m double, finishing fourth in both.

Guillemot was among her rivals in the 1500m in Budapest, the French 27-year-old finishing four places back in eighth. That followed her sixth-place finish in the Diamond League Final, while she finished fourth at the European Championships in August. Guillemot has already achieved a global medal in 2026 as she helped the French team to mixed relay silver at the World Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee in January, and she finished fourth in the world indoor 1500m final in Toruń two months later.

USA’s Wiley and Australia’s Billings both step up in distance after racing the 800m in Brussels and Budapest. Billings, who claimed 800m bronze at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow at the end of July, finished fifth in the Diamond League Final, one place ahead of Wiley. But Wiley, the world indoor 800m bronze medallist in Toruń, turned the tables during the Ultimate Championship as she finished fourth, three places ahead of Billings. They both already have experience of the World Road Running Championships as Wiley was ninth and Billings was 14th in the mile three years ago in Riga.

Like Guillemot, Billings’ teammate Linden Hall also raced at the World Cross Country Championships in January, helping Australia to the mixed relay title. Hall lines up in Copenhagen off the back of a busy Diamond League campaign – her last race being the 5000m final in Brussels where she finished 10th in that race won by Hailu.

A handful of athletes entered have already raced road miles this year, including Wiley who ran 4:25.42 in Des Moines in April. Gracie Hyde was second in that race in 4:25.64 and joins Wiley on the US team for Copenhagen.

Mirriam Cherop, who ran her PB of 4:22.54 in Honolulu in 2018, is joined on the Kenyan team by Naomi Korir, the national 1500m champion and Commonwealth Games mile fifth-place finisher. Canada’s Lucia Stafford finished one place ahead of Korir at the Commonwealth Games, while British champion Sarah Calvert was seventh in that race, and they too both compete in Copenhagen.

The entry list also features Ethiopia’s Olympic finalist Worknesh Mesele, Ireland’s 2025 European indoor champion Sarah Healy and Jamaica’s Adelle Tracey, who ran 4:20.4 in the 5th Avenue Mile last weekend.

Jess Whittington for World Athletics