WRRC Copenhagen 26 preview: men's 5km

Global champions Jimmy Gressier and Jakob Ingebrigtsen are set to clash in the 5km when Denmark welcomes many of the world’s leading athletes for the World Athletics Road Running Championships Copenhagen 26 on 19-20 September.

France’s Gressier is the world 10,000m champion and Norway’s Ingebrigtsen is the Olympic 5000m champion. Now they prepare to race each other on the road for the first time, on the first day of the championships on Saturday (19).

Gressier, who finished fifth in the half marathon at the last edition of the World Road Running Championships in Riga in 2023, threatened the world 5km record when he ran a European record of 12:51 in Lille in April. Only Berihu Aregawi (12:49) and Yomif Kejelcha (12:50) have ever gone quicker than the 29-year-old.

Ethiopia’s Addisu Yihune was second that day in Lille in 12:54 – a time that puts him fifth on the world all-time list – and he will battle with Gressier again in Copenhagen.

Since that race in Lille, Gressier finished third in the 10,000m and fourth in the 5000m at the European Championships, while Yihune won Diamond League 5000m races in Xiamen and Oslo. The 23-year-old most recently raced at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest but did not finish.

Ingebrigtsen was also in action in Budapest, and at the European Championships where he won the 5000m, three places ahead of Gressier. That was Ingebrigtsen’s fourth successive European 5000m title win, in what was his first race of the year following achilles surgery. The 25-year-old went on to claim three top-five finishes on the Diamond League circuit before ending his track season on a high by winning the Ultimate 5000m title.

The two-time world 5000m champion was also entered for the 1500m in Budapest but after the 5000m he did not feel in a position to contest two races back-to-back. Should Ingebrigtsen line up in Copenhagen, he will return to the roads in the city in which he raced his first, and so far only, half marathon in 2024. He has also raced the 5km only once so far – in Stavanger in 2020 when he clocked 13:28.

There are plenty of other contenders who will also be pushing for the podium this weekend. Maxime Chaumeton ran a South African record of 13:06 to finish fifth behind Gressier and Yihune in Lille, while Norway’s Narve Gilje Nordås and Portugal’s José Carlos Pinto were seventh and eighth in 13:10 and 13:13, respectively.

Yihune will be joined on the Ethiopian team by Mezgebu Sime who finished second behind his compatriot at the Boston 5K in April, while Burundi’s Egide Ntakarutimana is also in action after finishing second in the Diamond League 5000m final in Brussels and then placing eighth at the Ultimate Championship.

Australia’s 2025 world indoor 3000m bronze medallist Ky Robinson was one place behind Ntakarutimana at the Ultimate, that performance following his 10,000m win and 5000m runner-up finish at the Commonwealth Games. It was Kenya’s Mathew Kipsang who beat Robinson to the Commonwealth Games 5000m title and they meet again, Kipsang joined on the Kenyan team by Charles Kiboino.

Eritrea’s Dawit Seare ran a national record of 13:21 to finish fourth in Riga in 2023. He returns as the African 5000m champion having won in Accra in May.

Switzerland’s Dominic Lokinyomo Lobalu secured 10,000m silver at the European Championships, finishing one place ahead of Gressier, and he lines up with a 5km PB of 13:00 from Zurich in 2022. 

The entries also include Uganda’s 2024 world U20 5000m bronze medallist Keneth Kiprop, and Aron Gebremariam who will compete for the World Athletics Athlete Refugee Team.

Jess Whittington for World Athletics