{"id":110978,"date":"2026-01-08T22:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T22:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/110978\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T22:26:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T22:26:08","slug":"athletes-get-first-taste-of-tallahassee-ahead-of-world-athletics-cross-country-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/110978\/","title":{"rendered":"Athletes get first taste of Tallahassee ahead of World Athletics Cross Country Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) &#8211; Tallahassee is hosting the World Athletics Cross Country Championships this weekend and welcoming athletes from across the globe. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The championships are bringing nearly 500 athletes from more than 50 countries to the capital city. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">More than 5,000 tickets have already been sold to spectators coming from all 50 states and several other countries. Flags from each of those countries are flying near the course at Apalachee Regional Park.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"The course was already bustling on Thursday, as it was the first day athletes could check out...\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/52MW2QJJ4NCE3FZE5I67IJNHHA.png\" width=\"980\" height=\"508\" \/>The course was already bustling on Thursday, as it was the first day athletes could check out the course and get a practice run in.(Julie Montanaro\/WCTV)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The course was already bustling on Thursday, as it was the first day athletes could check out the course and get a practice run in.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">WCTV met runners from Kenya, Japan, India, Great Britain, among other countries, and talked with Niamh Allen from Ireland as she wrapped up her first run. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cIt\u2019s my first time to Florida, so I\u2019m delighted to be here and the world as well. It\u2019s incredible, the staging is out of this world,\u201d Allen said. \u201cThe man-made bits and bobs, it\u2019s going to be a technical and challenging course but a fair course for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Allen says she won\u2019t be able to stick around and enjoy Tallahassee for long after the race, as she\u2019s got a toddler waiting for her at home. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | text-center article-text\">More Tallahassee news:<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">A few runners, like Daniel Simiu Ebenyo from Kenya, said they were surprised by the morning fog and took note of the humidity. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThe course is good, but I see it is a bit humid here. Maybe tomorrow, we\u2019ll see. The day of the competition, we\u2019ll see how it will be, maybe it will be hot,\u201d Ebenyo said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">While that famous Florida sunshine was in short supply on Thursday, Kerri Post with Visit Tallahassee said those variations in weather come with the territory. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cSometimes it\u2019s really hot or really cold, so the athletes know that it\u2019s variable, but like you said, the expectation is we\u2019re in the sunshine state, they will experience Florida sunshine and the warm hospitality of Tallahassee and North Florida,\u201d Post said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">To keep up with the latest news as it develops, follow WCTV on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WCTV.tv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/wctvnews\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@WCTVEyewitnessNews\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nextdoor<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" target=\"_blank\"> <\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WCTV\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">X<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WCTV\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Have a news tip or see an error? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2026\/01\/08\/athletes-get-first-taste-tallahassee-ahead-world-athletics-cross-country-championships\/mailto:news@wctv.tv?subject=Correction%20Needed\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Write to us here<\/a>. Please include the article\u2019s headline in your message.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Be the first to see all the biggest headlines by downloading the WCTV News app. Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2024\/12\/18\/download-free-wctv-mobile-streaming-apps-today\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a> to get started.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 WCTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) &#8211; Tallahassee is hosting the World Athletics Cross Country Championships this weekend and welcoming athletes&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110979,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[56561,1721,56563,8944,17379,56562,110,232,234,233,55479],"class_list":["post-110978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-apalchee-regional-park","tag-capital-city","tag-championships","tag-cross-country","tag-ireland","tag-nationals","tag-sports","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news","tag-world-athletics-cross-country-championships"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}