Agnes Ngetich
Agnes Ngetich ensured that a 10th successive senior women’s title for Kenya never looked in doubt as she secured a processional victory at the World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee yesterday.
Winning by 42 seconds, the world 10km record-holder achieved the second-biggest winning margin in any race in World Cross Country Championships history. She clocked 31:28 for the 10km race to clinch her first global title ahead of Uganda’s Joy Cheptoyek and Ethiopia’s Senayet Getachew.
Cheptoyek, who finished seventh in the 10,000m at the World Championships in Tokyo, became Uganda’s first ever individual senior women’s medallist at the World Cross Country Championships. Clocking 32:10, she secured the silver by three seconds ahead of Getachew, who adds senior bronze to the U20 gold she won in 2023.
Getachew led Ethiopia to the team title – the nation’s 13th senior women’s team title overall and first since 2019. She was followed over the finish line by Asayech Ayichew, who also successfully stepped up to the senior stage after finishing second in the U20 race in 2024, and Ethiopia’s scoring team was completed by world U20 3000m champion Aleshign Baweke in fifth and Alem Tsadik in seventh.
Kenya clinched team silver and Uganda got bronze.
Beatrice Chebet had won the past two titles but with the double Olympic champion missing the 2026 season to start a family, Ngetich was on a mission to retain the title for Kenya.
Always to the fore, she was initially joined by Getachew, Ayichew and Cheptoyek and that quartet completed the first of the five 2km loops in 6:03. Clearly feeling good, Ngetich soon left her rivals behind and she took off on the second loop, creating a gap of 17 seconds on that chase trio – led by Cheptoyek – by the end of that circuit.
Ngetich increased her advantage to 25 seconds by the halfway point, and her lead only continued to grow – to 31 seconds by the end of the third loop and to 40 seconds with the final 2km circuit to go.
Ayichew had been dropped by Cheptoyek and Getachew by that point and was followed by a four-strong pack featuring Tsadik, Baweke, Uganda’s Rispa Cherop and Kenya’s Maurine Chebor.
At the front of the race, Ngetich carried on unchallenged and she strode over the finish line in 31:28 to add gold to the bronze she claimed at the 2023 World Cross Country Championships in Bathurst and the fourth-place finish she achieved in Belgrade the following year.
Her winning margin of 42 seconds is only beaten by Grete Waitz’s victory by 44 seconds in 1980.
“I am so happy with this title,” said Ngetich. “I now have an individual title and I am proud to become the 10th woman to win world cross country gold for Kenya. Beatrice (Chebet) told me to bring the (gold) medal back home. This title is special.”
A bit further back, the battle was on between Cheptoyek and Getachew. Cheptoyek managed the ‘Alligator Alley’ log stretch slightly better than Getachew when they passed that section for the final time, and she edged ahead, securing silver in 32:10 to Getachew’s 32:13. Ayichew got fourth place in 32:44 and was followed by Baweke and Cherop.
Ednah Kurgat, the 2017 NCAA cross-country champion, led the host nation squad as she finished 10th in 33:28.
Meanwhile, Australia’s decision to field a full-strength team for the mixed relay paid off handsomely as they powered to a convincing victory.
Their quartet of Olli Hoare, Linden Hall, Jack Anstey and Jessica Hull improved on their bronze medal from 2023 to win in 22:23 ahead of surprise silver medallists France. But perhaps the biggest shock of the race was that four-time winners Kenya finished one place shy of the podium.
Meshesha anchored Ethiopia to bronze (22:34), keeping Kenya off the podium for the first time ever in a mixed relay at the World Cross Country Championships.
Marta Alemayo retained her U20 title with a dominant performance at the Championships. The 17-year-old became the fifth woman to win back-to-back world U20 cross-country titles, clocking 18:52 to win the 6km race by 26 seconds.
She led an Ethiopian top two as Wosane Asefa won a fierce battle for the silver medal, gritting her teeth to edge Uganda’s Charity Cherop, 19:18 to 19:19. With that third-place finish, Cherop became the first athlete from a nation other than Kenya or Ethiopia to make the U20 women’s podium since the 2000 edition – also becoming Uganda’s first ever women’s individual medallist at the World Cross Country Championships.
With four athletes in the top 10, Cherop led Uganda to a historic team title ahead of Kenya and Japan. It was incredibly close and Uganda clinched the team crown on countback – becoming only the third nation after Kenya and Ethiopia to ever win this team gold since the U20 race was introduced at the World Cross Country Championships in 1989.
With just three Ethiopian athletes in action – short of the four needed for team scoring – the nation’s run of making the team podium at every edition since 1991 came to an end.
Following a handful of near-misses so far in his burgeoning career, Frankline Kibet struck gold on his global championships debut by winning the U20 men’s race.
The teenager had finished second at the Kenyan Cross Country Championships in February last year. He also claimed the runner-up spot in the 5000m at Kenya’s trials for the African U20 Championships. And at the end of 2025, he finished second once again in the trial race for the World Cross.
It’s no surprise that most eyes were on his teammates Emmanuel Kiprono, the Kenyan Trials winner, and Andrew Alamisi, the world U20 5000m champion. But it was Kibet who timed his effort to perfection, kicking to victory in 23:18 to lead a Kenyan 1-2-3-4 finish and securing team gold in the process.
Uganda, led by fifth-place finisher Cherotich, secured team silver ahead of hosts USA, who repeated their team bronze from 2023.
It was the sixth time in World Cross history – following 1993, 2000, 2005, 2007 and 2010 – that Kenya had swept the U20 men’s medals. No other nation has achieved the feat.
