Fast Women: World Cross Country returns to the U.S.
Agnes Ngetich, Marta Alemayo, and Australia's relay shine in Tallahassee.
Issue 389, sponsored by Aletheia Run
Visa rejections affect the World Cross Country Championships, but Tallahassee delivers a quality event
Before I dive into the results from the World Athletics Cross Country Championships, I think it’s important to provide some context. When the entry lists for the event were published last Tuesday, there were a number of notable absences, but most glaring was the fact that Ethiopia only had three women and one man entered in the U20 race. Because it takes four athletes to score, it meant that for the first time since 1981 on the men’s side and 1990 on the women’s side, Ethiopia would not earn a team medal in the U20 races.
Soon after, Jonathan Gault published a story indicating that at least 14 Ethiopian athletes had their visa applications rejected. The majority were U20 athletes (four of them women), and two were members of the mixed relay team. There’s been chatter about quite a few other countries dealing with rejections of their visa applications as well, but I haven’t seen anything confirmed.
The topic was on many people’s minds heading into Friday’s pre-event press conference. But when a local news reporter asked World Athletics president Sebastian Coe to detail how many athletes and which countries were affected by visa rejections, he got a subtle scolding from Coe, who led with, “It’s not a running commentary, I think, that is appropriate.” You can listen to the full exchange here.
It was a fair question. It would have even helped if Coe said something vague, like a number of countries were affected. But he’s a politician. The current administration has implemented a number of policies that make it harder for many people to get U.S. visas. But aspects of this issue predate Trump’s second presidency. Roughly 100 athletes, coaches, and officials were unable to make it to Eugene, Oregon, for the 2022 World Athletics Championships because their visa applications were not approved.
Coe said this would not prevent the World Athletics from hosting future championships in the U.S., though. The World U20 Athletics Championships are scheduled to take place in Eugene in August.
The world cross country local organizing committee put out a visa application manual encouraging federations to apply at least 90 days in advance of their travel and mentioning that wait times can be longer than 200 days in some places. (Selection events are rarely held that early.) The manual mentioned that even athletes from countries with full or partial suspension of U.S. visa issuance can get approved, because there’s an exception for major sporting events. I’d love to know more about what various federations’ experiences were like in reality. Beyond running, the topic is on a lot of people’s minds because of this year’s World Cup and the 2028 Olympics.
Regardless of the visa situation, World Cross, which once regularly attracted many of the world’s top runners, has been waning in popularity for a while now. Athletics Weekly published a piece about some of the countries who voluntarily stayed away. When I posted the article on social media last week, some people took that as people not wanting to travel to the U.S. in the current political climate. It’s possible there was some of that. I’ve not heard any professional runner mention it, though.
I think the bigger factor is that there are a lot more competing events now. And that might be felt more acutely on the women’s side, where there’s less depth and therefore fewer athletes to cover all of the opportunities. Amina Maatoug, who would have been her country’s lone representative, tried to get to world cross, but was unable to due to the snow in the Netherlands. However, in the end, the senior women’s race was slightly larger than the last two editions of the event with two more scoring teams (13) and five more starters (89).
And by many accounts, the event was a success. The atmosphere was reportedly great, as was the spectator turnout. (There was an announcement at the venue that 10,000 tickets had been sold.) The local organizing committee clearly put a lot of work and care into making the event a success.
Under great pressure, Agnes Ngetich keeps Kenya’s win streak alive
When Beatrice Chebet knew she wouldn’t be able to defend her World Cross Country title, she called up fellow Kenyan Agnes Ngetich. “She was like, ‘I’m not going to run, so the pressure is on you, and I really want you to go and fight and bring it home,’” Ngetich said.
And Ngetich, 24, delivered, earning Kenya its 10th-consecutive individual title, covering the 10K course in 31:28 and winning by 42 seconds. Though she had already established herself as one of the world’s top runners, this was her first major title, and she was clearly thrilled.
Ngetich said that she did not plan to take the lead so early, but she felt the pace lagging in the third kilometer, and she tried to keep it going. Her winning margin is the second-largest in the history of this race behind only Grete Waitz’s 44-second victory in 1980. (But to be fair, it only became a 10K race in 2017. In 1973, it started out as a 4K.)
Conditions at race time were hot and humid. Ngetich’s splits slowed throughout the race, as she navigated an artificial hill, a sand pit, a water pit, mud, and alligator logs on each lap, but her lead grew, for the most part.
The individual medalists were decided early, with Uganda’s Joy Cheptoyek and Ethiopia’s Senayet Getachew breaking away from the rest of the field before 6K. But their battle lasted to the end, with Cheptoyek holding off Getachew for silver, 32:10 to 32:13. Behind Getachew, the rest of the Ethiopian squad delivered, with Asayech Ayichew in fourth, Aleshign Baweke fifth, and Alem Tsadik seventh.
The last time this event was held, in 2024, Kenya swept the top five spots (though the fourth-place finisher was later banned for doping). This time, all four Ethiopian scorers came in before Kenya’s second runner, and they won the team title, 19 to 36. Kenya narrowly held off Uganda, who won bronze with 37 points.
The U.S. women had a solid day, finishing fourth with 83 points. I think a lot of people had extra high hopes for the U.S. squads, given that this was a home event. But regardless of where the event is held, it remains very difficult to break into the top three.
One runner who had a fantastic showing was Ednah Kurgat, who ran the best race of her career to finish 10th in 33:28. She was the highest individual U.S. finisher of the day, and she ran a masterful race, gradually working her way up after running in 19th place through 2K. Nothing about Kurgat’s past two years of racing would have predicted a result like this, but she has long been a strong cross country runner. In 2017, she won the NCAA title, and in 2023, she won a USATF Cross Country title and finished 18th at World Cross.
Kurgat, 34, did not race at all in 2024. She declined to go into detail about her struggles, but she said she was injured and added off camera that she dealt with dizziness and nausea, but never got a diagnosis. She resumed racing in the spring of 2025, and finished third at the USATF Cross Country Championships last month, but this was her first really big result since her return to competition.
Karissa Schweizer and Katie Izzo also had really solid races, with Schweizer taking 17th (33:58) and Izzo finishing 24th (34:25). And 21-year-old Grace Hartman closed out the scoring for the U.S., finishing 32nd in 34:47. Emily Venters was right with her, finishing 33rd in 34:48, and Weini Kelati went for it but struggled late in the race and ultimately finished 40th in 35:25.
Kelati ran much of the race in about 11th place, which would have been a realistic finish for her on any of her better days. But the heat and humidity may have gotten to her, and she faded significantly over the final 3K. Kelati’s run didn’t hurt the U.S. team’s finish in any way, though. Having her up there probably gave Kurgat, her former college teammate, someone to key off of, and whether Kelati finished first or last, the U.S. still would have placed fourth.
New Zealand’s Hannah Gapes, Hartman’s teammate at NC State, was the top NCAA finisher. NC State had three runners in the race, with Great Britain’s Phoebe Anderson finishing 35th. (Senior women’s results)
Thanks to Allison Mercer, who covered this event for Fast Women and got that quote from Ngetich, among many other things.
Jessica Hull and Linden Hall help carry Australia to mixed relay gold
It’s not always easy to get the world’s best middle distance runners to prioritize a cross country race, especially when it’s held in January. But Australia took the mixed 4 x 2K relay at the World Cross Country Championships seriously, sending their big dogs, and it paid off with the country’s first gold medal in the event.
The team’s leadoff runner, Olli Hoare, handed off to Linden Hall in fourth place, but only two seconds out of the lead. Hall smoked everyone on the second leg, handing off in first, with a six-second lead. Jack Anstey kept Australia in it on the third leg, and handed off in second place, two seconds behind France. And Jessica Hull quickly regained the lead on the anchor leg and held it to the finish, winning 22:23 to 22:26 over France.
The French team, composed of Alexis Miellet, Sarah Madeleine, Antoine Senard, and Agathe Gullemot impressed. Ethiopia’s Hirut Meshesha had the second-fastest anchor leg of the day, behind Hull, but the team finished a relatively distant third, in 22:34. It’s hard to say how this race would have played out if Ethiopia could have gotten everyone they wanted to the U.S., but Australia was going to be pretty tough to beat, no matter who was on the line.
All four members of Australia’s relay squad ran in the NCAA, and Hall graduated from Florida State in 2015, so this event was a homecoming for her. With the women running the second and fourth legs, and many of the men being relatively evenly matched, the teams with the strongest women had the most success.
For the first time in the history of the mixed relay, which has been around since 2017, the Kenyan team did not medal. They finished fourth in 22:42. And the U.S. team finished fifth, one second back.
Ethan Strand led off for the U.S. and handed off in first, with a one-second lead. Sage Hurta-Klecker dropped to sixth on the second leg, but she handed off only three seconds out of the medals. Wes Porter brought the U.S. back to third on the third leg. France and Australia were out of reach by that point, and Grace Morris got the handoff with Ethiopia and Kenya hot on her heels. Morris held her own, but she was up against three women who had run 3:56 or faster for 1500m, so she had her work cut out for her. All in all, it was a solid showing.
This is an event I can imagine the U.S. medaling in one of these days, and I’m glad the team is now being selected via a race, rather than based on resume. (Mixed relay results)
Thanks to Alethia Run for sponsoring Fast Women this week
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Ethiopia goes 1-2-5 in the U20 race, but without a fourth scorer, the team title goes to Uganda
Much like the senior race, Ethiopia’s Marta Alemayo went in as the U20 favorite and she came away with a dominant win, running 18:52 for 6K. She finished 26 seconds ahead of fellow Ethiopian Wosane Asefa, who finished second in 19:18. And Uganda’s Charity Cherop won bronze in 19:19.
Alemayo, 17, also won this race in 2024, when she was only 15. At Ethiopia’s selection race in November, she finished third behind Shito Gumi and Yenewa Nibret, but neither athlete was able to make the trip to Tallahassee. Ethiopia’s third scorer on Saturday, Yenenesh Shimket, took fifth in 19:35. In order to win the team title, they just would have needed anyone who could finish 20th or higher.
But without that fourth scorer, Uganda narrowly edged Kenya for the team title. Both scored 29 points, and I’m not sure how they broke the tie here, but Uganda became the first country in the history of the women’s U20 race, other than Ethiopia or Kenya, to win the title. Kenya has won it 15 times and Ethiopia has 14 wins, including the past five editions.
The Japanese team finished third (87), and the U.S. took fourth (108). Blair Bartlett, 16, led the way for the U.S. with a gutsy 16th-place finish, and she showed that selecting the top U.S. runner from NXN was a wise move. (U20 results)
A breakthrough for Fantaye Belayneh, and Taylor Roe runs the second-fastest half marathon by a U.S. woman
On paper, Ethiopia’s Tsigie Gebreselama, 25, was the favorite heading into Sunday’s Houston Half Marathon. But Fentaye Belayneh, also from Ethiopia and also 25, kicked away from her in the final meters of the race to win 1:04:49 to 1:04:52. Belayneh took an impressive 2:42 off of her personal best, bringing her half marathon time more in line with what she has accomplished at shorter distances. Buze Diriba made it an Ethiopian sweep of the podium, taking third in 1:05:57.
Puma Elite’s Taylor Roe, 25, lined up for a lot of races last year, so it was good to see her get four months off from racing. And on Sunday, in her first race back, she picked up in an even better place than where she left off. She finished fourth in 1:06:20, took 62 seconds off of her personal best, and moved to second on the U.S. all-time list. Only Weini Kelati, who ran 1:06:09 at Houston last year, has run faster.
Behind Roe, a number of other U.S. women ran well. Natosha Rogers’ 1:07:30, a 65-second personal best, moves her to seventh on the U.S. all-time list. Makenna Myler had a fantastic day, running 1:07:37, a 51-second personal best. Amanda Vestri ran 1:07:43, just off of her PR, Erika Kemp ran 1:08:42, a 28-second PR, and Susanna Sullivan ran 1:08:44, a 15-second PR.
And Laura Galván, who finished eighth in 1:07:31, ran a Mexican record.
Athletes won’t be able to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials using a half marathon time until 2027, but I was impressed that 23 athletes in the women’s race, 13 of them American, broke 1:12:00. (Houston Half Marathon results)
The Houston Marathon produces nine more Olympic Trials qualifiers
Running two fast marathons about a month apart isn’t easy, but if anyone can pull it off, it’s Calli Hauger-Thackery and Sara Hall. Great Britain’s Hauger-Thackery and Kenya’s Janet Ruguru went through halfway at Sunday’s Houston Marathon in 1:11:15, but Hauger-Thackery pulled away in the second half of the race and won in 2:24:17, only four weeks after her Honolulu Marathon win.
Ruguru faded in the second half, but stayed in the race and finished eighth in 2:33:47. Meanwhile, Sara Hall went through halfway in fourth place (1:12:06), but moved up over the second half and took second in 2:26:26. If you’re thinking wait, what, I thought she was a pacer, you are correct. She was, but it’s not easy to get Hall to stop running. She explained in an Instagram post.
To review, Hall, 42, ran 2:26:32 at the Boston Marathon last April. She then dropped out of the New York City Marathon in November. (In the linked post, she says she overcooked herself.) She finished second at CIM on December 7, running 2:24:38, and five weeks later, here we are.
Biruktayit Degefa, who also ran CIM, took third in 2:28:07, and improved her Olympic Trials qualifying time by two-plus minutes.
Now we jump to my favorite part of the results: the new Olympic Marathon Trials qualifiers. There were nine of them, which I believe brings the total number who have hit the 2:37:00 qualifying time to 107. Mimi Smith finished sixth in 2:30:14, taking 3:50 off of her PR. Lexie Thompson, who had her second child 11 months ago, finished seventh in 2:32:17. After missing the OTQ by only nine seconds at CIM, Elle Orie finished ninth in 2:35:06. By my count, she is the fifth medical student to qualify so far on the women’s side.
Elizabeth Talbi, whose husband won the men’s race, took nearly 15 minutes off of her marathon PR and finished 10th in 2:35:36. (She didn’t do a lot of specific training for her first marathon.) She, too, had a baby less than a year ago. Courtney Olsen, who broke the American 100K record in November, finished 11th in 2:35:39, a 42-second PR. In her debut at the distance, Caroline Garrett finished 12th in 2:36:04.
And Dot McMahan, 49, did it. She qualified for her sixth-consecutive U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials, finishing 13th in 2:36:24. And the feat has only gotten harder with time. When she qualified for her first Trials, the standard was 2:47:00. (Which meant something totally different with the tools and knowledge we had at the time, I assure you.)
I was thrilled to see Arianna Maida, whom I profiled last May, finish 14th in 2:36:28 and earn her first OTQ. She took 5:39 off of her PR. And Katie Watson, who also qualified for the 2020 Trials, PRed by 4:58 and finished 16th in 2:36:39. (Houston Marathon results)
Additional News and Links
Sarah Lorge Butler talked to Weini Kelati last week. Unfortunately audio issues will prevent us from releasing the conversation as a podcast episode, but Kelati confirmed that she plans to make her marathon debut in 2026, but when and where is TBD. And she also confirmed that she’ll be racing the Barcelona Half Marathon on February 15, where she’ll target a fast time.
New Balance announced the launch of the Parker Valby FuelCell SuperComp LDX spike last week. Valby is one of not many female distance runners to have a shoe named for her, and it’s particularly rare so early in one’s career. When Valby signed with New Balance, her father/agent told Runner’s World that there were a couple of huge surprises coming. I wonder if this is one of them.
Annie Rodenfels had been planning to make her half marathon debut in Houston, but she had to pull out after getting very sick over the Christmas break.
Nell Rojas was also on the start list for the Houston Half, but she said she’s still not ready health-wise.
Canada’s Florence Caron has signed with NAZ Elite, and Kate Current, also of Canada, has signed with Nike.
I appreciated that Ireland’s Ciara Mageean, who was diagnosed with cancer last year, posted an update. She recently finished her 12th round of chemo.
Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier Rebecca Schmitt was featured by the Loveland Reporter-Herald. She was a state champion in high school, but she took a significant break from competitive running. She’s been on an incredible trajectory since running her first marathon less than three years ago, and at CIM, she finished sixth in 2:28:47.
During the Houston Marathon broadcast, my ears perked up when I heard Houston’s mayor assure viewers that Houston is a safe city. He didn’t specify for whom. This country has never been equally safe for everyone, but things have gotten significantly tougher for many people recently. This topic received more attention last week after bystanders captured footage of Renee Nicole Good being shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. Though there are notable exceptions, I’ve been generally disappointed by how quiet many high profile people in the running community have been about what is going on in this country. But I appreciated Minnesotans Gabi Rooker, Elena Hayday, Kara Goucher, and University of Minnesota coach Sarah Hopkins acknowledging what happened last week. And I particularly appreciated another Minnesotan, Verna NezBegay Volker, sharing that she constantly needs to be alert, as four Native people have been detained by ICE in Minneapolis. I have been thinking of all of the people who feel unsafe going about their lives, including going for runs, and I am really hoping that we’ll see an increasing number of people both within the running community and beyond use their privilege to speak up, whether online or in their communities.
Benita Fitzgerald Mosley, who won Olympic gold in the 100m hurdles in 1984, has been named the new CEO of the U.S. Center for SafeSport. Fitzgerald Mosley, who previously worked for USATF and the USOPC, will take over on February 1.
Results Highlights
Kenya’s Brenda Jepchirchir won the 10K Valencia Ibercaja, running a blazing 29:25, which places her fourth on the world all-time list. Ethiopia’s Likina Amebaw ran an also incredible 29:30, and Kenya’s Clare Chemtai Ndiwa was third in 29:49. Back in eighth, Great Britain’s Eilish McColgan ran 30:08, taking two seconds off of the European record that Belgium’s Jana Van Lent set a week earlier. (Recap | Results—this race had incredible depth)
Molly Seidel’s ultra debut was a great success. She won the Bandera 50K outright, and set a women’s course record of 4:09:39. She used the race as a tuneup/test run leading up to next month’s Black Canyon 100K. (Results)
Kassie Parker won the USATF Club Cross Country Championships, running 20:00 for 6K. The race was held on the World Cross course in Tallahassee, one day later. (A wise move on USATF’s part, IMO.) Minnesota Distance Elite dominated the team race, putting six runners in the top eight. Carrie Dimoff won the masters 6K, running 21:38. And I was impressed by Nora Cary, who dominated the 70-74 age group, running 27:56 and finishing 60th out of 125 runners ages 40 and up. (Results)
Shelby Houlihan won the San Tan Scramble 26K trail race in 1:48:20. Though she’s doing some trail races, she still has plans to race on the track this season.
Podcast Highlights
I appreciated Anna Gibson’s appearance on Women of Distance because it’s the first podcast where I’ve heard her explain how she ended up on the Olympic ski mountaineering team.
Additional Episodes: Melissa Lodge talked REDs and more on Unexpected Curves | Uruguay’s Julia Paternain on Paula’s Run Club (starts at 11:20 mark) | Emma Coburn on For the Long Run | Amanda McGrory on I’ll Have Another | CSU-Pueblo’s Helen Braybrook discussed setting the NCAA DII mile record on Beyond the Stride
The World Cross Cross Country Championships returning to the U.S. has me reminiscing a little about the last time the event was in the U.S. The race took place in Boston in March 1992, my junior year of high school, and my dad and I made the two-hour trip to watch. (I just watched the race coverage to see if it jogged my memory. I kind of prefer it to all of the drone shots this year.) My memory has faded so much, and it’s funny what has stuck with me and what hasn’t.
I remember Lynn Jennings winning, of course. I remember it took some work to get to the race, because Boston’s public transportation system isn’t very good and there was no parking at the venue. I remember freezing, and I remember the roar when Jennings entered the stadium and had taken the lead. I don’t think I even considered bringing a camera to the race. And I didn’t yet know what the internet was. When I look back, I think how great it was of my late father to take me, because he wasn’t particularly into running himself. And I remember how inspired I was.
Apparently, when I got home, it was still light enough to go for a run. So I did one of my favorite, probably inaccurately measured loops faster than usual. (Hence the ?!) I almost never look at my old training logs, but I dug this one out just for kicks. The note on the right says, “Lynn Jennings won - snowy freezing good race.”
Hopefully some of those 10,000 spectators in Tallahassee got a good dose of inspiration over the weekend.
Thanks again to Aletheia Run for sponsoring Fast Women these past two weeks and thanks to all of you who help keep this newsletter going with your support via Venmo or Patreon. I couldn’t do this without you.
And I hope you all have the best week possible.
Alison
P.S. Yesterday was hectic. Also meant to say that I loved that Beatrice Chebet was at World Cross cheering. https://www.instagram.com/p/DTV-FR3j732/
Thanx for recognizing that the US political landscape is concerning. Runners are people too so when they ignore talking about the new dangers that ICE brings to our communities they are at risk of contributing to the growing dangers. It’s a balance that we all must figure out but I appreciate you mentioning it.