Agnes Ngetich ensured that a 10th successive senior women\u2019s title for Kenya never looked in doubt as she secured a processional victory at the World Athletics Cross Country Championships Tallahassee 26 on Saturday (10).<\/p>\n
Winning by 42 seconds, the world 10km record-holder achieved the second-biggest winning margin in any race in World Cross Country Championships history. She clocked 31:28 for the 10km race to clinch her first global title ahead of Uganda\u2019s Joy Cheptoyek and Ethiopia\u2019s Senayet Getachew.<\/p>\n
Cheptoyek, who finished seventh in the 10,000m at the World Championships in Tokyo, became Uganda\u2019s first ever individual senior women\u2019s medallist at the World Cross Country Championships. Clocking 32:10, she secured the silver by three seconds ahead of Getachew, who adds senior bronze to the U20 gold she won in 2023.<\/p>\n
Getachew led Ethiopia to the team title \u2013 the nation\u2019s 13th senior women\u2019s team title overall and first since 2019. She was followed over the finish line by Asayech Ayichew, who also successfully stepped up to the senior stage after finishing second in the U20 race in 2024, and Ethiopia\u2019s scoring team was completed by world U20 3000m champion Aleshign Baweke in fifth and Alem Tsadik in seventh.<\/p>\n
Kenya clinched team silver and Uganda got bronze.<\/p>\n
Beatrice Chebet had won the past two titles but with the double Olympic champion missing the 2026 season to start a family, Ngetich was on a mission to retain the title for Kenya.<\/p>\n
Always to the fore, she was initially joined by Getachew, Ayichew and Cheptoyek and that quartet completed the first of the five 2km loops in 6:03. Clearly feeling good, Ngetich soon left her rivals behind and she took off on the second loop, creating a gap of 17 seconds on that chase trio \u2013 led by Cheptoyek \u2013 by the end of that circuit.<\/p>\n
Ngetich increased her advantage to 25 seconds by the halfway point, and her lead only continued to grow \u2013 to 31 seconds by the end of the third loop and to 40 seconds with the final 2km circuit to go.<\/p>\n
Ayichew had been dropped by Cheptoyek and Getachew by that point and was followed by a four-strong pack featuring Tsadik, Baweke, Uganda\u2019s Rispa Cherop and Kenya\u2019s Maurine Chebor.<\/p>\n
At the front of the race, Ngetich carried on unchallenged and she strode over the finish line in 31:28 to add gold to the bronze she claimed at the 2023 World Cross Country Championships in Bathurst and the fourth-place finish she achieved in Belgrade the following year.<\/p>\n
Her winning margin of 42 seconds is only beaten by Grete Waitz’s victory by 44 seconds in 1980.<\/p>\n
Cheptoyek managed the \u2018Alligator Alley\u2019 log stretch better than Getachew when they passed that section for the final time, and she edged ahead, securing silver in 32:10 to Getachew\u2019s 32:13. Ayichew got fourth place in 32:44 and was followed by Baweke and Cherop.<\/p>\n
Ednah Kurgat, the 2017 NCAA cross-country champion, led the host nation squad as she finished 10th in 33:28.<\/p>\n
Jess Whittington\u00a0for World Athletics<\/p>\n
SENIOR WOMEN’S INDIVIDUAL RESULTS<\/p>\n
\ud83e\udd47
\nAgnes Ngetich (KEN)
\n31:28<\/p>\n
\ud83e\udd48
\nJoy Cheptoyek (UGA)
\n32:10<\/p>\n
\ud83e\udd49
\nSenayet Getachew (ETH)
\n32:13<\/p>\n
4
\nAsayech Ayichew (ETH)
\n32:44<\/p>\n
5
\nAleshign Baweke (ETH)
\n32:49<\/p>\n
6
\nRispa Cherop (UGA)
\n32:52<\/p>\n
7
\nAlem Tsadik (ETH)
\n33:00<\/p>\n
8
\nMaurine Chebor (KEN)
\n33:06<\/p>\n
9
\nSarah Chelangat (UGA)
\n33:20<\/p>\n
10
\nEdnah Kurgat (USA)
\n33:28<\/p>\n