• “Kenya has a strong team here, so hopefully we’ll return home with more medals and the team title,” she noted.
• Meanwhile, senior men’s champion Jacob Kiplimo stands poised to defend his title amidst stiff competition.
Image: XINHUA
The women’s World Cross Country defending champion Beatrice Chebet is confident Kenya will sweep the board in Saturday's global show in Belgrade, Serbia.
Chebet clocked 33:48 to clinch the title in Bathurst, Australia, last year.
Ethiopia's Tsigie Gebreselama (33:56) and Kenyan Agnes Ngetich (34:00) claimed silver and bronze respectively. “Kenya has a strong team here, so hopefully we’ll return home with more medals and the team title,” Chebet noted.
The 24-year-old further noted that the world cross title opened the gates for her last season.
“My 2023 season was a great one,” said the Chebet. “It started in Australia, where I won the world cross-country title. This motivated me a lot and set me up for the rest of the year.”
She added: “I went on to win the 5000m bronze medal in Budapest, then in Riga, I won the 5km. At the end of the year, I broke the world 5km record in Barcelona,” she added.
Chebet clocked 14:54.33 in the World Athletics Championships held in Budapest, Hungary behind Ethiopia’s Sifan Hassan (14:54.11) and World 1,500m record holder Faith Kipyegon (14:53.88).
She clinched the title in Riga, Latvia clocking 14.35 and broke the women’s 5km record in Barcelona in a time of 14.13.
Meanwhile, senior men’s champion Uganda's Jacob Kiplimo stands poised to defend his title amidst stiff competition.
Kiplimo clocked 29:17 to secure the men's title followed by Ethiopia’s Berihu Aregawi (29:26) and his fellow compatriot Joshua Cheptegei (29:37).
“I have done a lot of training for this event and I’m excited to race tomorrow,” he said. “I think it will be a good race, and hopefully we’ll see the Ugandan flag flying during the medal ceremonies.”
Three-time European cross-country champion Karoline Bjerkeli Grovdal said she’s excited to be contesting in her first World Cross since 2010.
“I love cross country and I’ve done a lot of European championships, and this time the World Cross is in Europe so it was an easy event for me to attend,” said the Norwegian. “I want to test my form and see how my winter training has been going."
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe noted that he looks forward to good races in Belgrade.
“I’m looking forward to watching almost 500 athletes from about 50 teams compete tomorrow. Most of them are looking to use this as a platform towards the Olympic Games in Paris later this year.”