Two and a half weeks from now, Copenhagen will stage the biggest weekend on the global road-racing calendar. The World Athletics Road Running Championships take place in the Danish capital on 19 and 20 September, bringing world titles over the road mile, 5K and half marathon to a city with one of Europe's deepest running cultures.
This is the second edition of the championships in their expanded format, following the inaugural event in Riga in 2023, and it incorporates the long-established World Athletics Half Marathon Championships, last contested in the Latvian capital that same year. Twelve championship events are on the programme across the two days, with team medals awarded alongside the individual honours.
The timetable frontloads the speed. Saturday 19 September opens with the women's and men's road miles in the morning before the 5K races in the early afternoon, a schedule that should serve up championship racing at its most direct. Sunday belongs to the half marathon, with the women's race setting off at 9:10am and the men following at 9:45am through the streets of Copenhagen.
As in Riga, the championships double as a festival of mass participation. Recreational runners were able to enter official mass races over the 5K and mile distances, sharing a course and a weekend with the world's best and earning a unique championship medal for finishing. It is a formula World Athletics sees as central to the event: a world championship that ordinary runners can take part in rather than simply watch.
The event caps an extraordinary September for the sport. The Diamond League Final in Brussels this week gives way to the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest from 11 to 13 September, the Great North Run follows on the 13th, and the Berlin Marathon closes the month on the 27th. In a crowded calendar, Copenhagen's blend of elite depth and open participation may prove the most distinctive weekend of them all.