With an American Record Under Her Belt, Weini Kelati Is Ready for the Big Stage of World XC

Saturday’s World Cross Country Championships in Belgrade offers a rare opportunity for US distance fans: the chance to see one of America’s best runners run World XC while in the form of their life. That will be the situation when US champion Weini Kelati and leads Team USA into the women’s senior race at Friendship Park at 12:45 p.m. (7:45 a.m. ET, CNBC/Peacock).

Few American runners have had a better start to 2024 than Kelati. She began the year by running an American record of 66:25 in her half marathon debut in Houston on January 14, then won her first US cross country title six days later in Virginia — by 37 seconds. Most recently, she ran 30:33.82 at The TEN on March 16 to move to #6 on the US all-time 10,000m list and join Alicia Monson as the only US women to have earned the 2024 Olympic standard of 30:40.

“We’ve had no niggles, no interruptions this year,” said Stephen Haas, Kelati’s coach with the Under Armour Dark Sky Distance team. “This is definitely the best shape I’ve seen her in since she went pro.”

It has taken something of a perfect storm to reach this moment. The very best Americans often skip World XC to focus on the track or roads, and those that do show up are rarely in career-best form. And until this year, it would have been a stretch to describe Kelati as one of the “very best” Americans. Kelati was good — she finished 4th in the 5,000 at USAs in 2022 and 4th in the 10,000 in 2023 in addition to winning consecutive US 5k road titles in 2021 and 2022. But she was not the runner she is now.

Last year, Kelati finished 21st at World XC in Australia. That was despite falling, despite miscounting her laps during the race (she thought she still had a lap to go as she was finishing), and despite not running the week of the US championships due to a foot injury. Now, Kelati finds herself in the shape of her life with the chance to do something special in Belgrade.

Kelati dominated at USA XC in January (Kevin Morris photo)

“I think it would be awesome if she was top 10, top 8,” Haas said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she was up in the mix, because last year she went into World XC not being in the shape she’s in right now and she put herself right in the race [with] a gutsy run. She loves cross and she loves the opportunity to go and run against the best runners in the world. I think that desire to do something like that and be in the mix with good fitness is going to be pretty cool.”

The level of competition will be high in Belgrade. Kenya is sending one of its best-ever squads, led by Agnes Ngetich (28:46 10k road world record in January), Emmaculate Anyango (28:57 road 10k pb), and reigning champion Beatrice Chebet (14:05 5k pb). Ethiopia’s team, led by 64:14 half marathoner Girmawit Gebrzihair, is always formidable too.

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Since 1995, only three US women have finished in the top 10 at World XC, and none have done so since 2011. Two of those women — Deena Kastor and Shalane Flanagan — belong on the Mount Rushmore of US women’s long distance running. The third, Colleen de Reuck, is a four-time Olympian and former Berlin Marathon champion. Kelati, who moved to the US from Eritrea in 2014 and became a citizen in 2021, has the fitness to challenge for a top-10 spot on Saturday. But it will still require a big effort to join that exclusive group.

Top 10 finishes by US women at World XC since 1995

Fun trivia fact, an Eritrean-born woman has only finished in the top 10 once in World XC history. Simret Sultan, Eritrea’s Olympic flag bearer in 2008, was 9th in 2007.

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Strong run at The TEN suggests there is more in the tank

As impressively as Kelati ran at The TEN, 30:33 may be slightly underselling her fitness at the moment. Haas said that ahead of the race, Kelati had mulled going out with Alicia Monson and Tsigie Gebreselama, who were trying to run 72-second laps pace for the first three kilometers. They had deemed 72s (30:00 pace) within Kelati’s range, but Monson and Gebreselama were planning on picking it up after 3k. That would have put Kelati in a tough position: either try to hang on to a faster pace and risk blowing up and missing the Olympic standard, or stick on 30:00 pace and run by herself. Ultimately, Kelati opted to let Monson and Gebreselama go and focus on her top priority, the 30:40 Olympic standard.

Kelati’s 30:33 moved her to #6 on the all-time US 10,000m list (Kevin Morris photo)

“I thought it went really well for how the race unfolded,” Haas said. “It was a tough judgment call to not go out with Alicia and Tsigie. I just felt like we needed to be a little safer. I thought she could have run a little bit faster but it just played out where she had to do a lot of leading and a lot of work.”

Haas was impressed at how comfortable Kelati looked running at a fast pace. When the pacer for the second group dropped after 2k, Kelati responded quickly and made sure the standard did not slip away. In fact, rather than simply stick on the Wavelight set at 30:40 pace, Kelati ran in front of it for much of the race, a sign that Kelati was confident in her fitness.

“She felt good, she gave me the thumbs-up a couple times,” Haas said. “I kept telling her, hey, you just need to stay with the light, don’t overthink it, don’t go too hard. [Her running ahead of the lights was] probably a little bit of feeling good and a little bit of not necessarily overthinking it on her part and running on feel.”

Kelati’s time represented a 31-second improvement on her previous personal best of 31:04, further proof that the decision to increase the volume of her workouts and long runs in 2024 is paying off. While Kelati’s overall volume is up as well — roughly the 60-70 mile-per-week range until her recent taper, compared to 50-60 mpw previously — it’s the length of her quality sessions that stands out.

Haas has been careful not to overdo it. Kelati does not run on Sundays, so she typically works out on Tuesdays and Fridays with long runs on Saturdays. But she does not do a long run every week  — it can be tough on the body to run hard on Friday then long on Saturday, especially for an athlete still getting accustomed to higher mileage.

“We’ve backed down a little bit the last couple weeks just making sure that we’re getting the quality in, but [overall] the long runs have gone up, the workout volume has gone up with no little injuries at all,” Haas said. “We’ve just been super consistent and I think that’s led to her being confident and being in really good shape.”

(For more on Kelati’s training adjustments this year, we wrote about it ahead of Houston: LRC 2024 Houston Half Marathon Preview: Galen Rupp Tunes Up & Weini Kelati Debuts)

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Warm weather in the forecast for Belgrade

Conditions were quite different when Kelati won her NCAA XC title in Terre Haute in 2019

One variable Kelati probably was not counting on for a race in Serbia in March was the potential for hot weather. Saturday’s forecast calls for an unseasonably warm, sunny day with a high temperature of 80 degrees. While Kelati is not a bad heat runner — she won the NCAA 10,000m title in Austin in 2019 — she has done all of her preparations in Flagstaff, where it is very much still winter (it snowed there on Tuesday).

“We haven’t left Flag in a long time,” Haas said. “She’s been up there training, it’s been winter, it’s cold. We get to drop down every now and then, but it hasn’t been that warm, even in Sedona…That concerns me a little bit but at the same time, we’ll be prepared. Maybe we warm up a little less or bring an ice vest or something to keep the core body temperature down.”

Still, there is no question about Kelati’s fitness, and she has always been a strong cross country runner, winning national titles in both high school and college. Kelati’s personal bests of 14:53/30:33/66:25 compare favorably with those of last year’s 10th placer, Stella Chesang of Uganda (15:00/30:40/68:11). It is up to her to see how it all translates on Saturday in one of the most intense, chaotic tests in the sport of running: the World Cross Country Championships.

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Where do you think Weini will finish at World XC? Vote in our poll and then discuss is on our messageboard.

MB: An American woman hasn’t finished in the top 10 at World XC in 13 years, will Weini Kelati end that streak in 2024?