COPENHAGEN, Denmark – When the beginning gun sounds for the World Athletics Street Operating Championships mile in Copenhagen this Saturday, 4 American athletes will toe the road with a connection that runs by downtown Des Moines.

Yared Nuguse, Vince Ciattei, Addy Wiley and Gracie Hyde all earned their spots on Crew USA on the 2026 USATF 1 Mile Street Championships, hosted as a part of the Grand Blue Mile introduced by Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Defend in April.

The Grand Blue Mile introduced by Wellmark served as the only U.S. choice occasion for the World Athletics Street Operating Championships, with the highest two finishers in every males’s and girls’s championship race incomes automated spots on Crew USA. Nuguse received the boys’s championship in a course-record 3:54.06, adopted by Ciattei in 3:54.62. Wiley captured the ladies’s title in 4:25.42, with Hyde ending second in 4:25.64.

Now, practically 5 months later, the 4 athletes will reunite on the worldwide stage as america competes for the inaugural World Athletics Street Operating Championships mile titles in Copenhagen.

For Nuguse, his expertise in Des Moines left an enduring impression past successful the USATF title. In the course of the latest episode of the Drake Relays Podcast, Nuguse mirrored on the environment surrounding the Grand Blue Mile introduced by Wellmark. “There have been so many individuals. It was such a hype race…the gang was electrical. It was only a actually enjoyable environment, and I feel that was what made that race so good.”

Nuguse enters the World Championships as the latest Grand Blue Mile introduced by Wellmark males’s champion and the proprietor of the U.S. All-Comers highway mile report, established along with his 3:54.06 efficiency on the streets of downtown Des Moines. His victory additionally marked his first USATF highway mile title.

The 4 athletes’ journey from Des Moines to Copenhagen can be the main focus of the latest episode of the Drake Relays Podcast, which options an interview with Nuguse. Hosted by Mark Freund, the episode affords a more in-depth have a look at Nuguse’s profession, his expertise racing in Des Moines and his return to the worldwide stage for the World Athletics Street Operating Championships.

The episode is obtainable now by the Drake Relays Podcast and the Drake Sports activities Media Podcast Community. Take heed to the latest episode of the Drake Relays Podcast

 

The World Athletics Street Operating Championships happen Sept. 19-20 in Copenhagen, Denmark. The elite girls’s mile begins at 10:10 a.m. native time Saturday, adopted by the elite males’s mile at 10:30 a.m. native time.

 

For followers watching from Iowa, meaning an early-morning begin: 3:10 a.m. Central Time for the ladies’s race and three:30 a.m. Central Time for the boys’s race. The World Athletics Street Operating Championships will characteristic world championship races within the mile, 5K and half marathon, with athletes from 85 federations represented within the 2026 championships.

 

Concerning the Drake Relays

The Drake Relays, America’s Athletic Basic, is likely one of the world’s premier monitor and discipline occasions, bringing elite athletes, collegiate rivals, highschool athletes and followers collectively every spring at Drake College in Des Moines, Iowa. The Grand Blue Mile introduced by Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Defend is a part of the Drake Relays’ weeklong celebration and brings hundreds of runners to downtown Des Moines every year.