American document holders throughout the half marathon and mile lead a star-studded Workforce USATF roster on the World Athletics Highway Working Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark. The 2-day world showcase opens Saturday with the highway mile and 5K, adopted by Sunday’s half marathons.
Within the males’s highway mile, American document holder Yared Naguse doubles again shortly from final weekend’s World Final Championships in Budapest, the place he took fifth within the 1500m regardless of a clipped shoe with 600m to go. The 2024 Olympic bronze medalist—who set the nationwide monitor mile mark of three:43.97 in 2023—gained the Diamond League 1500m in Stockholm earlier this season. Naguse booked his ticket by edging out Vince Ciattei by simply half a second on the USATF 1 Mile Championships in Des Moines. The pair arrive as huge favorites on paper, holding highway bests (Naguse at 3:51.90, Ciattei at 3:54.55) almost six seconds away from the remainder of the sphere. They may cope with high worldwide expertise, together with Naguse’s teammate Ollie Hoare and Jake Heyward, recent off a runner-up exhibiting on the New Steadiness fifth Avenue Mile.
On the ladies’s aspect, 2026 World Indoor bronze medalist Addy Wiley enters as the highest seed behind her 4:25.42 highway greatest from Des Moines. Wiley, coming off a fourth-place 800m run in Budapest, is joined by steeplechase standout Gracie Hyde, who pushed Wiley to the road at nationals with a 4:25.64 private greatest earlier than taking second at Düsseldorf’s New Steadiness Kö Meile earlier this month. Standing of their means is Ethiopia’s Freweyni Hailu, a two-time World Indoor champion and Riga road-mile silver medalist recent off a 5000m win on the Brussels Diamond League ultimate.
The boys’s 5K guarantees an electrifying showdown between France’s Jimmy Gressier and Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who arrives in peak type after successful the 5000m in Budapest. Reigning U.S. 5K champion Drew Hunter leads the American contingent alongside 2025 World Indoor finalist Dylan Jacobs. Within the girls’s 5K, Olympic steeplechase silver medalist Courtney Frerichs continues her resurgent highway marketing campaign alongside Allie Ostrander, who steps in for the injured Karissa Schweizer. They face a frightening worldwide duo in Budapest champion Likina Amebaw of Ethiopia and Kenya’s Caroline Nyaga, the fourth-fastest 5K runner in historical past.
Sunday’s motion turns to the half marathon, that includes six American girls. Nationwide document holder Weini Kelati (1:06:04) headlines the squad as a ultimate tune-up earlier than her New York Metropolis Marathon debut this November. She is joined by Jess McClain, who clocked 2:20:30 at Boston—the quickest time ever run by an American lady on the course—alongside nationwide 25K champion Emma Grace Hurley and Ednah Kurgat. Following a course-marking mishap on the U.S. half marathon championships, Carrie Ellwood and Annie Rodenfels will even race in USA jerseys as non-scoring opponents. The undisputed favourite, nonetheless, is Kenya’s Agnes Ngetich, who owns the second- and third-fastest occasions in historical past with back-to-back Valencia titles (1:03:04 and 1:03:08).
The boys’s race marks the return of American marathon document holder Conner Mantz. Sidelined for many of 2026 by accidents, Mantz is wholesome and testing his health earlier than heading to New York. He’s backed by U.S. champion Wesley Kiptoo, two-time Olympic steeplechaser Hillary Bor, and breakout star Ahmed Muhamed, who took third behind Kiptoo and Bor in March.
U.S. followers might want to set an early alarm: Saturday’s protection begins with the mile at 4:10 a.m. ET and the 5K at 8:10 a.m. ET. Sunday’s girls’s half marathon begins at 3:10 a.m. ET, adopted by the lads at 3:45 a.m. ET. The whole championship will stream stay on Peacock.
