The 2026 Tallahassee World Cross Country Championships course offers a course unlike any other.

Replica alligators

The organizing committee has created a pancake-flat course which winds its way around a spectator-friendly 2 km loop. The route includes a mud section, water hazard and replica alligators on logs, staggered, not unlike the tire stacks in Bathurst, Australia, in 2023.

The 46th running of the World Cross Country Championships will be the third edition to take place in the US. Previously, in 1992, the event was run in Boston. The first American edition was run in New Jersey in 1984.

The very first World Cross Country Championships took place in 1973 in Waregem, Belgium.

IN 2019, Aarhus, Denmark, created a new era in world cross-country with their tough route that included runs over the roof of a building. The event was festival-like and ushered in a new era of cross-country meets, as per the goals of World Athletics’ president Sebastian Coe.

East African dominance

For 36 consecutive editions, an East African country has won the men’s team event. Twenty-five times Kenya has won and is the defending champion. Kenya had its streak of 18 in a row broken in 2004 by Ethiopia, which has won 10 times. Uganda won in 2019.

In the women’s event, 25 of the 26 meets were won by an East African team, mainly Kenya and Ethiopia. Ethiopia has 12 wins, Kenya has 13. Portugal won in 1994, breaking Kenya’s streak of three consecutive. Before the East African dominance, the Soviet Union won repeatedly in the women’s, and it was Great Britain and Belgium in the early days in the men’s.

Europe and the US will look to usurp the East African dominance. However, it is unlikely to happen unless East Africans are running for those countries.

Where non-East African countries will look for victories is in improving overall team performance and individual results. The host Americans will want to perform well at home.

Doping control

Of course, doping is prohibited. Tests will be undertaken before and at the championships to attempt to ensure only clean athletes compete. A total of fourteen doping violations have occurred at the World Cross Country Championships.

The first violation was against Kenyan Cosmas N’deti, who was the original runner-up at the 1988 junior men’s race. He remains the only athlete stripped of a medal for doping. Seven doping violations have come from Moroccan athletes, with Portuguese athletes accounting for a further three. The 2010 and 2011 editions had the highest number of doping violations, with totals of four and five, respectively.

The senior men’s long race has produced the highest number of violations, with eight in total.

Generally, Kenya has had a total of somewhere between 400 and 500 athletes suspended for doping-related offences since 2016. The cases involve a myriad of issues, including tampering with samples, bribing doping control officers, and evading testing in the whereabouts program. Additionally, Kenyans have been suspended for Athlete Biological Passport issues, showing impossible blood profiles, which lead to suspensions. Kenyans commonly test positive for EPO, the red blood cell booster, steroids like nandrolone or corticosteroids and other products.

Doping is a global problem; however, it is a rampant scourge in Kenya. The small East African nation is on the World Anti-Doping Agency watch list. Performance-enhancing drugs are available on the street in Kenya, especially in Nairobi.

The latest suspension comes from Emmanuel Kipruto Kiprop, who did not test positive for a drug, but has been cited for not disclosing money he has earned in Japan while excluding paying his agent.

For athletes competing clean, those who dope not only take medals and prize money from events, but money from their own athletics federation and potential commercial endorsements and corporate contracts. It is lucrative to dope, and Kenya is one of the poorest countries in the world.

Currently, the women’s world record in the marathon is held by Ruth Chepngetich at 2:09:56. She tested positive for a masking agent and is now suspended. However, her record remains. For now.