World Cross: Stiff competition for Kenyan men in quest for title

The top three finishers in the senior men’s race from last year’s edition will return for another clash at the World Athletics Cross Country Championships set for on Saturday 30 March in Belgrade.

Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo will defend his title against a strong field that includes 2023 runner-up Berihu Aregawi, and 2023 bronze medalist and 2019 winner Joshua Cheptegei, the three-time world 10,000m champion.

Chebet out to defend world title in Belgrade

The line-up also includes another global title winner in the form of world half marathon champion Sabastian Sawe of Kenya.

After missing out on an individual medal in Bathurst last year, the Kenyan men will be keen to make the podium this time.

World half marathon champion Sawe leads the cross-country powerhouse nation. 

He is joined on the Kenyan team by world U20 cross-country champion Ishmael Kipkurui, world 5km bronze medalist Nicholas Kipkorir, and rising trio of Samwel Chebolei Masai, 2021 world U20 5000m champion Benson Kiplangat and Gideon Kipkertich Rono.

The Kenyan squad faces stuff competition from among others, Uganda, who have claimed back-to-back senior men’s titles through Kiplimo and Cheptegei, and these two will race to claim a historic hat-trick for their country. 

The duo will be joined by Martin Kiprotich, who finished 18th in Bathurst, and African U20 5000m champion Dan Kibet, who finished second at last month’s Ugandan Cross Country Championships, won by Kiplimo.

Kiplimo, who delivered Uganda’s first-ever World Cross Country gold medal when he won the U20 title on home soil in 2017, returns to global competition after an injury forced him to withdraw from last year’s World Championships in Budapest.

October marked his return to competition, winning the World Cross Country Tour Gold meeting in Atapuerca, and he followed that with victory at the Zevenheuvelenloop 15km road race.

This year, the world half marathon record-holder has competed twice and triumphed twice, winning over 10km in Valencia and at the Ugandan Cross Country Championships. The 23-year-old now looks to Belgrade as an opportunity to bounce back to global glory.

Cheptegei, who recently clocked 26:53 over 10km in Laredo, will be motivated to reclaim the senior title he won in 2019. In fact, should either of the leading Ugandan contenders win, they will join the likes of Kenenisa Bekele, Paul Tergat and Geoffrey Kamworor as a multiple world cross winner.

World 5km record-holder Aregawi will aim to become the first Ethiopian winner of this title since 2011. 

Meanwhile, ranked third in the Cross Country Tour standings, Spain’s Thierry Ndikumwenayo is a man to watch out for in Belgrade. He placed ninth in the senior men’s race at the 2019 World Cross while representing Burundi. Since then, he has reduced his PBs to 7:25.93 at 3000m and 12:55.47 for 5000m.

By World Athletics