The Canadian Cross-Nation Championships return to Fanshawe Golf Membership in London, Ont., on Nov. 29, and there’s loads on the road for this 12 months’s athletes: specifically, a coveted spot on Group Canada for the 2026 World XC Championships in Tallahassee, Fla. The open males’s and girls’s fields are the deepest they’ve been in years, and Canadian Working shall be on the course to maintain you up to date on all of the motion.
Right here’s a preview of the lads’s and girls’s races and a how-to-follow.
Males’s 10K preview
For the primary time since 2012, Canada’s Moh Ahmed will compete for a nationwide XC title. Over the previous 13 years, Ahmed has pursued his objective of turning into one in every of Canada’s biggest observe runners. This journey earned him a world championship bronze medal and an Olympic silver within the males’s 5,000m. However his 2025 observe season didn’t go as deliberate: a calf damage hampered his buildup and saved him from acting at his greatest on the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. Ahmed arrives in London because the clear favorite within the males’s 10K, with a number of younger challengers trying to pull off an enormous upset.
A kind of challengers is three-time Canadian college XC champion Philippe Morneau-Cartier of La Pocatière, Que. Morneau-Cartier has dominated U Sports activities this XC season with Université Laval and completed fourth finally 12 months’s ACXC on this identical course. With six spots accessible on Group Canada for the World XC Championships, he’ll be among the many high contenders combating for a spot.
One other title to observe is 24-year-old Evan Burke of London, Ont., who will look to capitalize on the home-course benefit. Burke spent the final a number of years operating observe and cross nation within the NCAA system for Stanford College and the College of Oregon, the place he broke a number of of Ahmed’s U23 distance information. He owns a ten,000m private better of 28:31, and hopes to make use of his familiarity with the course to remain within the combine.
Former U Sports activities XC champion Mitch Ubene is one other athlete who could seem on a number of prediction lists. Ubene has had a standout fall on the roads, successful the Ontario provincial 5K championships and the Hamilton Road2Hope Elite 5K in 13:59.
Canadian Olympian and nationwide workforce marathoner Ben Preisner is dropping down in distance to offer himself an opportunity to make the Canadian XC workforce heading to Tallahassee. Preisner’s most up-to-date race was two months in the past on the Tokyo World Championships, the place he positioned twenty sixth, in 2:17:32.
The lads’s 10K race goes off Saturday at 3:00 p.m. ET.
Girls’s 10K preview
Just like the lads’s race, the ladies’s 10K has a transparent favorite: Vancouver’s Ceili McCabe. This shall be solely McCabe’s second look on the Canadian XC Championships, and in the event you keep in mind her debut in 2023, she received by a major margin. This 12 months’s girls’s area in London is deeper than it was two years in the past in Ottawa, however McCabe can be extra skilled; since 2023, she has represented Canada twice on the world stage (within the 3,000m steeplechase) and captured an NCAA title over 3,000m. She set this Canadian XC title as her fundamental fall-season objective, and her third-place end at a World Athletics XC occasion in Wales three weeks in the past suggests she’s greater than able to ship.
Florence Caron of La Malbaie, Que., shall be one of many athletes trying to problem McCabe. Final week, Caron completed as the highest Canadian on the 2025 NCAA XC Championships in Missouri, putting 14th for Penn State College. She is a seasoned cross-country runner and has put collectively a powerful fall season that backs up her potential for a podium end on Saturday.
With solely six spots accessible on the world workforce, Canadian Olympian Regan YeeHamilton’s Chloe Thomas and Glynis Sim of Salmon Arm, B.C., are among the many contenders trying to safe one. Thomas is at the moment sitting out this NCAA collegiate season after transferring from the College of Connecticut to the College of Washington; throughout her time at UConn, she set a U23 Canadian 5,000m document of 15:17.47. Each Yee and Sim even have confirmed XC credentials, having represented Canada at earlier World XC Championships.
After making an announcement final 12 months, Leslie Sexton returns to the course that introduced her nationwide XC glory as she seems to be to defend her title. When she received in 2024, Sexton mentioned she needed to see each Canadian distance runner line up in 2025, and judging by the depth of this 12 months’s area, she obtained her want.
The ladies’s 10K race goes off Saturday at 2:00 p.m. ET.
How one can watch
The 2025 Canadian Cross Nation Championships shall be streamed reside on Runnerspace through AthleticsCanada.television. A hyperlink for the reside webcast and on-demand movies will solely be accessible for RunnerSpace +PLUS subscribers. Yow will discover the hyperlink right here.
Canadian Working can even be reside on the course, bringing you updates because the motion unfolds (and Web permits) in London. Keep tuned to our Instagram feed for the newest information.
