2026 World Cross Country Championships - OFFICIAL THREAD (+ live reaction show @ 2:30 pm ET)

John Treacy won two world titles and zero NCAA cross country races.

Why are people acting like World XC has ever been a big event in recent history? This year was par for the course (no pun intended). The depth of running talent and amount of spectators was about the same as when it was in Serbia or Australia. Which is good considering that it was held in a different hemisphere than where the rest of the developed world lives, and during a time when the U.S.A. isn't exactly a popular place to visit.

XC is just never going to be popular. It's kinda boring. No drama. No concept of performance/stats. More than half the top talent doesn't care to do it. We don't seem to realize how stupid it is to create a version of running where "times don't matter." It's like if you created an NFL season where they play on arbitrary length fields ("yards don't matter!") which are muddy and overgrown with weeds. How stupid would that be?

His time was 31:46, 18 seconds slower than Ngetich, but Ngetich has a sub 28:50 -10km road best.

By the way, Ngetich's performance today was the one which impressed me the most. Running 31:28, all alone. I'm guessing if she had ran in the men's race she might have ran around low 31:00-31:10, beating men from Canada, Japan, Australia and many other (on paper) strong countries.

She's a super monster woman.

Was the course that slow or challenging? Just asking for some context to put around the times. Outside of Kiplimo the times are that of NCAA championship times

I was there. It was awesome live. There were 10,000 people there. You don't coach high school meets with 10,000 people. Please get back to finding reason to be unhappy with the sport and your life.

I was at the course and heard them say 7500 people, but that was fairly early in the day. It definitely felt much more crowded for the senior races than the relay or U20s. So 10,000 people sounds like a believable number.

However, with the 2k loop, it was much better to stay inside the loop. There were at least one or two spectator crossovers, but those must've been closed for large parts of the race (keep in minds that the fields got spread out; people were getting lapped). So the main point to cross the course was the bridge by the roller coaster, and that got clogged up very easily. The best viewing spot, as mentioned earlier in this thread, was by the sand pit and water feature. You could watch the runners go through the sand, wait a minute, then see them come through the water. There was also a TV screen and speakers there to see the video coverage of the race.

All of this means there was basically no reason to be outside of the loop. And with the way the course was designed, the finish chute was left (to the inside), so there really wasn't a way to get spectators into that area to line both sides. It felt like a good atmosphere in person, but I can understand how that didn't translate to TV. It certainly felt more crowded and lively than even the HS state meets I've gone to.

World cross should be held in Africa😂

Watching on peacock they showed some fans with Robinson Cross Country clothing. were any athletes competing for the U.S. graduates from Robinson Secondary? I guess possibly they were just fans that went.

PS lots of discussion here about the event. I liked it, the course was cool, the commentating was superb. The only area for improvement for me would be the video (less high drone coverage next time).

Was anyone wearing cheater spikes, or would that have been detrimental on a course like that with those wonky underfoot stretches?

Would traditional spikes have been the footwear of choice today?

Serious question.

Bad luck for her. She didn't manage to make it out of the Netherlands due to all the snow they've had recently. The Dutch Instagram account that originally announced her entry went back and updated on top once they found out she wasn't able to travel.

That run was a thing of beauty

Hopefully moves his focus more to 10k/HM

I was there also. It was a very good time despite the lack of any compelling finishes. I'll look forward to watching the coverage, now that I read Hannah England was doing the commentary. On site we had Paul Swangard doing the call so I thought that was going to the world feed also. Swangard also did the introductions and the medal ceremonies.

I introduced myself to rojo, accidentally interrupting him just as he told me he was posting something regarding Graham Blanks. LetsRun.com had a large banner, at least for a while. I saw it being carried in the area between the mud and the finish line. But rojo told me the pole snapped.

Between the sand and the water was definitely the best viewership area. I got there early and identified that ahead of time. Those two spots were only 20 meters apart. It was like a golf tournament with two greens right next to each other and simple to walk back and forth.

My favorite moment by far was when I shouted encouragement to Agnes by name and she seemed startled, snapping her head to the left. Two nearby spectators laughed. The woman said she got it on tape. This was in an area not far beyond the water pit where there were few spectators. Agnes was also a delight at the medal ceremony, touching hands with as many as possible and later wiping away tears after her anthem was played.

The one positive of Grand Slam Track was the higher visibility of Agnes Ngetich.

Every time I wear my Canes gear, like today, I get one person after another thinking I'm a coach. That happened multiples times today, just like at ACC indoors and NCAA indoors last year. Even other coaches think I'm a coach.

After the cross country I was worn out while touring the Tallahassee Automobile Museum for 2.5 hours. I should have saved that for a different day. That museum is hardly limited to automobiles. It has plenty of everything.

Yeah, don’t forget that 3k race though in 2020 where Kiplimo inched ahead of him.

It was very easy. I was out of there in less than 10 minutes. They key was not to follow the traffic. That led to stalled congestion.

Instead I drove in the other direction as far as I could go, and then snuck along the fence line as far as that took me. Then I turned down that first row until it met the traffic stalled near the entrance. Those drivers let us in, in alternating fashion.

Only two other cars behind me had done the same thing. We essentially leap frogged dozens and dozens of cars behind us who had followed the conventional path.

But I didn't feel too bad about it because I took a look at the situation on entry in the morning and figured out that would be the way to proceed. Again, my experience attending so many golf tournaments was a huge benefit because it often plays out the same way.

The announcing was amatuerish. Little local cable TV show.

Others in the thread have spotlighted it well. On site among the name brand runners I thought Kelati and Megan Keith looked like they were struggling the most. It was especially visible in the sand area because we had plenty of time to evaluate their facial expressions and body language over that stretch.

The organizers did a very good job of tightening up the obstacles to prevent cheating. I checked that immediately after arrival in the morning. The alligator pit had the fences pinched in on both sides to touch the logs. There was a large vehicle along the sand area to prevent runners from straying outside right, and spectators along the left served the same purpose.

The mud was full wide. It should have been more wet, especially far left. Jessica Hull hugged that left edge once clear with the lead in the opening mixed relay. I saw many coaches out there during the mixed relay evaluating what everyone was doing at eac h obstacle and then calling it in to help runners who would go later.

The only problematic obstacle was the water. It was not long enough, wide enough or deep enough, IMO. They put a large flower pot at front right to block that route. But the runners still wanted to err right. That must have been the practice day strategy. During early races they only had one official blocking that right side. He'd stand in the middle and keep both arms outstretched. That generally worked but there was still the occasional runner who insisted on veering right and taking the final 1 or 2 steps outside the water. That official would shake his head. He didn't want to disqualify anybody. It was primarily the straggler runners bending the rules.

For the large field in the men's race they smartly placed 3 officials along the right side of that water pit, all with their arms outstretched.

Yes. They should not have outdoor or XC world champs in the US. The only one they should have is the one they don’t — indoors. There are some great indoor tracks in great cities and filling them up or getting crowd excitement wouldn’t be a problem.