World Athletics Road Running Championships – News – Kenya Tops Medal Table At Inaugural World Athletics Road Running Championships

KENYA TOPS MEDAL TABLE AT INAUGURAL WORLD ATHLETICS ROAD RUNNING CHAMPIONSHIPS
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2023 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved – Used with permission.

RIGA (01-Oct) — With a dozen total medals (five gold) Kenya topped the medal table at the inaugural World Athletics Road Running Championships here this afternoon.  In cool, sunny and breezy conditions Kenyan athletes swept the podiums of both the men’s and women’s half-marathons (thus winning the team gold medals), took gold and silver in the women’s 5-K, and bronze in the men’s 5-K and women’s mile.  Peres Jepchirchir won her third world half-marathon title.

But, there were some upsets and not all of the glory went to Kenya.  Ethiopia’s Hagos Gebrhiwet and Diribe Welteji were gold medalists in the men’s 5-K and women’s mile, respectively, and Americans Hobbs Kessler and Sam Prakel got gold and bronze in the mile.  In all, five nations –Ethiopia, Great Britain, Kenya, South Africa and the United States– won individual or team medals (only the half-marathon had team scoring).

With separate mass races in both the 5-K and half-marathon, Riga’s streets teemed with runners today.  The crowds were significant, especially along the finish straight adjacent to the Daugava River.

“Riga was really spectacular,” said Italy’s Nadia Battocletti who finished fifth in the women’s 5-K in a national record 14:45  “Really amazing.  You have a super-beautiful city and what I love most was the crowd.  There was a lot of people cheering us.  I really appreciate having a crowd around the course, so I’m really happy.”

KESSLER AND WELTEJI RUN ALL THE WAY TO THE BANK

The mile was the shortest distance today, but the biggest for cash awards.  World Athletics offered USD 50,000 for any world records here today (pending ratification), and with modest benchmarks of 4:01.21 for men and 4:27.97 for women it seemed a certainty that those records would go.

And they did.

In the much-anticipated women’s race, where Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon was heavily favored to win and set her fourth world record of the year, the race began according to form with Kipyegon taking the lead right from the gun.  But Ethiopia’s Diribe Welteji and Freweyni Hailu were not intimidated and went with the two-time Olympic 1500m gold medalist.

At the 1000m mark (2:41.0) Kipyegon still had the lead with Welteji close behind.  Hailu, and Kenya’s Nelly Chepchirchir, were battling for the bronze medal just two seconds behind.  Kipyegon…