Nearly 500 athletes are set to descend on Copenhagen, Denmark, this weekend (19-20 September) for the World Athletics Road Running Championships 2026, with glory up for grabs in three events: The road mile, 5k and half marathon.
Team USA’s Yared Nuguse leads the road mile field with a career-best 3:51.90, while global champions Jimmy Gressier, Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Agnes Ngetich are all entered to compete.
Nuguse and fellow American Vincent Ciattei have the two fastest times on the road this year, as well, going 3:54.06 and 3:54.62, respectively. Another American – Hobbs Kessler – won the most recent Road Running mile title, at Riga 2023 in a then-world record time of 3:56.13.
Kenya’s Nicholas Kipkorir leads the men’s half marathon, his personal-best 58:08 coming earlier this year in Lisbon. Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda will also feature, the all-time distance legend a gold medallist in the 5,000m at Tokyo 2020 and 10,000 at Paris 2024 – who is also a three-time world champion at that distance.
It’s Norway’s Ingebrigtsen who is set for the 5k, where the Frenchman Gressier is also set to compete. Gressier is reigning world champion in the 10,000m, and has the world-lead time of 12:51 in the 5k road in 2026.
