The 2026 World Cross-Nation Championships are set for Saturday at Tallahassee, Fla.’s Apalachee Regional Park, returning to the U.S. for the primary time in additional than three a long time. Canada’s Moh Ahmedwho has returned to the cross-country scene for the primary time in 12 years, is positioned to make historical past by changing into the primary Canadian ever to achieve the senior males’s podium.
Ahmed, 32, made a shock return to the cross-country scene this yr, showing on the 2025 Canadian championships (ACXC) in London, Ont., for the primary time in 13 years. He took a dominant win by a 15-second margin, incomes a spot at his first World XC Championships since 2013. At these 2013 championships, which passed off in Bydgoszcz, Poland, 21-year-old Ahmed positioned a powerful twenty second and was the highest Canadian.
The primary version of the World (previously IAAF) Cross-Nation Championships passed off in 1973, and within the 45 championships since, no Canadian has ever earned a medal within the senior males’s race. Within the 5 editions since 2015, all senior males’s medallists represented Kenya, Ethiopia or Uganda.
Can Kiplimo defend his title?
After back-to-back wins, Uganda’s Jacob Cultivationcontemporary off his Chicago Marathon win, is chasing his third straight World XC crown. Ethiopia’s Inform Aregawithe 2023 and 2024 world XC runner-up and Paris Olympic 10,000m silver medallist, is undoubtedly very hungry to lastly seize a win. Different high contenders are Kenya’s 2025 nationwide cross-country champion Daniel Ebenyo and world 10,000m gold medallist and 5,000m bronze medallist Jimmy Gressier of France.
Tokyo. Photograph: Kevin Morris
Who will exchange Chebet atop the rostrum?
In Beatrice Chebet‘s absence, there can be a brand new senior girls’s champion for the primary time since 2023. Agnes Ngetich of Kenya is available in because the more than likely contender for the win, because the 2023 bronze medallist, 2024 fourth-place finisher and 10K world document holder (2024). Compatriot Maurine Chebor, the 2025 Kenyan XC champion, can also be within the working, alongside Ugandan nationwide XC champion Pleasure Cheptoyek.
4 hundred and eighty-five athletes (together with reserves) from 52 nations are entered within the competitors; the whole entry checklist will be discovered right here.
The final version of the occasion passed off in Bathurst, Australia, in 2023.
Schedule and tips on how to watch
(All instances in ET.)
9:45 a.m. – blended relay
10:20 a.m. – U20 girls
10:55 a.m. – U20 males
11:35 a.m. – senior girls
12:20 a.m. – senior males
The 2026 World Cross-Nation Championships will be streamed in Canada on CBC.ca or CBC Gem.
