At September’s World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, national marathon record holder Cam Levins revealed his hope to assemble a stacked team of Canadians for the 2026 World Cross Country Championships in Florida. Now, with the Canadian Cross-Country Championships (ACXC) just around the corner, we decided to join the fun, creating our own fantasy senior men’s and women’s squads.
“I’ve been talking with Moh Ahmed a little bit,” Levins told Canadian Running in a post-marathon interview in Tokyo. “It’s been a long time since we’ve done Canadian cross-country, so maybe we’ll try to put a team together for that in Tallahassee. I think that would be pretty fun.”
ACXC 2025 will take place on Nov. 30 at Fanshawe Golf Course in London, Ont., the same venue as last year. No, entry lists haven’t been finalized, so yes, we’re getting slightly ahead of ourselves. But in an ideal world, this would be Canadian Running‘s dream roster to represent the maple leaf at the World XC Championships at Tallahassee’s Apalachee Regional Park in January.
Men’s squad
Cam Levins: the Canadian marathon record holder, who placed 12th in the marathon in Tokyo, won the national XC title three straight times (2010-2012). In 2012, he and Ahmed went 1-2.
Moh Ahmed: a Canadian distance legend, undoubtedly looking for a rebound after dropping out of the men’s 10,000m final in Tokyo.
Rory Linkletter: the second-fastest marathoner in Canadian history, thriving on the big stage in his recent races.
Philippe Morneau-Cartier: fresh off a historic three-peat at the U Sports XC Championships, becoming only the second person ever to do so. Morneau-Cartier has solidified himself as a master of any cross-country course, going undefeated for three consecutive university XC seasons.
Kieran Lumb: one of the nation’s top middle/long-distance talents and a key member of Team Canada on the global stage. After winning back-to-back 1,500m titles in 2023 and 2024, Lumb claimed the 5,000m win earlier this year; he also won the 2023 Canadian XC championships in 29:18.
Andrew Davies: one of Canada’s fastest-rising road athletes and a former U Sports star. Davies comes into this year’s competition as the reigning national XC champion.
Ceili McCabe winning the 2023 ACXC Championships. Photo: Sean Burges/Mundo Sport Images
Women’s squad
Ceili McCabe: one of the nation’s strongest distance athletes and the national record holder in the 3,000m steeplechase. McCabe won the 2023 national XC title in Ottawa (33:28) and finished an impressive sixth at last year’s NCAA Cross-Country Championships.
Gracelyn Larkin: a Rosseau, Ont., talent who shone on the NCAA stage before moving to the roads. Last May, she pulled off a massive upset at the 2025 Canadian 10K Championships to win over defending champion and Olympian Malindi Elmore.
Gracelyn Larkin winning the 2025 Ottawa 10K. Photo: Canadian Running
Gabriela DeBues-Stafford: a Canadian icon. She returned to form this year after a long battle with injury, hitting World Championships standard in both the 1,500m and 5,000m. She advanced all the way to the 1,500m final, where she achieved her first sub-four-minute performance since 2022.
Julie-Anne Staehli: The 2022 national XC champion, known for her 5,000m success before shifting her focus to the roads. Staehli made her half-marathon debut at last month’s Toronto Waterfront Marathon (1:14:09), placing second.
Chloe Thomas: cracked the top 10 at last year’s NCAA XC Championships, placing ninth (19:43) for the University of Connecticut. Thomas has been on a steady rise, also having claimed third in a stacked 5,000m final at this summer’s Canadian track championships.