World Athletics published the final entry lists for the World Athletics Road Running Championships Copenhagen 26 on Saturday, confirming 496 athletes from 85 member federations plus the Athlete Refugee Team for the two days of racing on 19 and 20 September. The field of 270 men and 226 women is contesting global titles in the road mile, the 5km and the half marathon, with the mile and 5km scheduled for Saturday 19 September and the half marathon for the Sunday, run alongside mass-participation races over the same championship courses. Event-by-event previews and official start lists are due in the week of the championships.
The women's half marathon carries the strongest headline entry. Agnes Ngetich, the world 10km record-holder and world cross-country champion from Tallahassee in January, will run the distance in which she holds the Kenyan record of 1:03:04, the second-fastest time in history. Ethiopia's Tsigie Gebreselama, fourth at the last edition in Riga in 2023, is also entered, as is Uruguay's world marathon bronze medallist Julia Paternain. Kenya's full half marathon squad also includes Daisilah Jerono, Veronica Loleo and Lilian Kasait, with the men's line-up of Daniel Ebenyo, Nicholas Kipkorir, Gideon Rono and Michael Kiplangat.
The United States squad has a complication that dates back to March. Weini Kelati, the North American record-holder, leads a six-woman team drawn from the USATF Half Marathon Championships, but scoring will be limited to four athletes: Kelati plus Jess McClain, Emma Grace Hurley and Ednah Kurgat, the three who were misdirected late in the qualification race. Carrie Ellwood and Annie Rodenfels will compete as non-scoring entrants. In the men's half marathon, Kipkorir arrives with the 58:08 he ran in Lisbon in March, fourth on the all-time list, and will face Sweden's world 10,000m silver medallist Andreas Almgren, whose European record of 58:41 was set last year, alongside Uganda's Joshua Cheptegei and Ebenyo, the world half marathon silver medallist.
The men's 5km entry is the one that will draw the biggest television audience. Jimmy Gressier, France's world 10,000m champion, ran 12:51 in Lille in April to threaten the world record and, as this site reported on Friday, quietly abandoned a planned one-hour record attempt in Brussels to keep the Copenhagen 5km as his priority. Ethiopia's Addisu Yihune, second in Lille in 12:54, is entered again. So is Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who won the European 5000m title last month on his return from injury and is one of a group of athletes attempting a global double on consecutive weekends, racing at the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest on 11 to 13 September before travelling to Denmark.
The women's 5km brings together Kenya's Caroline Nyaga, Ethiopia's Likina Amebaw, European record-holder Diane van Es of the Netherlands, Belgium's Jana Van Lent and Uganda's Charity Cherop, who took 5000m gold and 3000m bronze at last month's World U20 Championships. In the road mile, Ethiopia's two-time world indoor champion Freweyni Hailu, silver medallist in Riga three years ago, is joined by Addison Wiley of the United States and Australia's Linden Hall, while the men's race features Portugal's world 1500m champion Isaac Nader, Olympic bronze medallist Yared Nuguse and Spain's Mohamed Attaoui. The half marathon's 35,000 mass places sold out through last year's lottery, meaning Copenhagen will stage the championships in front of one of the largest fields ever assembled for a World Athletics road event.