MIAMI
\nUganda\u2019s Jacob Kiplimo, the reigning Chicago Marathon champion, won his third consecutive men\u2019s crown on Saturday at the World Cross Country Championships.
\nThe 25-year-old completed the hat-trick over 10 kilometers in a winning time of 28min 18sec with Ethiopia\u2019s Berihu Aregawi 18sec back in a third consecutive runner-up finish, with Kenya\u2019s Daniel Ebenyo third in 28:45.
\nKiplimo became only the fourth man to win three world cross country titles in a row after Ethiopia\u2019s Kenenisa Bekele (2002-2006) and the Kenyans Paul Tergat (1995-1999) and John Ngugi (1986-1989).
\n\u201cTo win three times, I\u2019m so happy about it,\u201d Kiplimo said. \u201cI think it\u2019s about the consistency in your training. Another thing it\u2019s about is believing in yourself.\u201d
\nKiplimo was last year\u2019s London Marathon runner-up in 2hr 3min 37sec in his debut at the 26.2-mile distance, then captured the Chicago Marathon in 2:02:23 last October, a quick turnaround that added to the challenge of defending his title.
\n\u201cToday was the hardest one,\u201d Kiplimo said.
\nAgnes Ngetich, the world 10km record holder, took the women\u2019s title in 31:28 over 10km to deliver Kenya a 10th consecutive women\u2019s crown at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee, Florida.
\nNgetich defeated Uganda\u2019s Joy Cheptoyek by 42 seconds in a dominant performance with Ethiopia\u2019s Senayet Getachew third in 32:13 over a course featuring sand, water and mud zones plus barriers resembling fallen logs.
\nIn the men\u2019s final, Kiplimo was second by two seconds at the mid-race mark and with two kilometers remaining was alongside Aregawi and world half marathon runner-up Ebenyo.
\nKiplimo surged ahead by eight seconds on Aregawi entering the final kilometer and raced across the finish line to cheers.
\nHe does not expect to seek a fourth world cross country crown as he will turn his attention to the marathon.
\n\u201cI think now maybe this one is going to be the last one because of the marathon\u2026 because I\u2019ll be training for the marathon,\u201d Kiplimo said.
\nAregawi, the 10,000m runner-up at the 2024 Paris Olympics, had lost by nine seconds to Kiplimo in 2023 and by only three seconds in 2024 in the two prior editions of the event.
\nJimmy Gressier, the Frenchman who had been tipped for a podium finish after his shock 10,000m victory on the track at last year\u2019s world championships, was a disappointing 15th.
\nNgetich dominates
\nKenya\u2019s Beatrice Chebet, the reigning 5,000 and 10,000m champion, did not seek a third consecutive women\u2019s title because she is beginning a 2026 maternity break.
\nThat left Ngetich to continue Kenya\u2019s title streak and she did so in epic fashion.
\nNgetich grabbed the early lead and began to stretch a gap after two kilometers, pulling away to run alone through the Florida pine trees and reach the midpoint at 15:20.
\nNgetich led by 35 seconds after seven kilometers and stayed in command to the finish to win by the second-largest margin in the race\u2019s history, trailing only the 1980 victory of Norway\u2019s Greta Waitz by 44 seconds over 4.82km.
\nIt was Ngetich\u2019s first cross country competition since winning on home soil in last February\u2019s Sirikwa Classic.
\nNgetich was third behind Chebet at the 2023 worlds and fourth in a Kenyan top-four sweep in 2024.
\nEthiopia swept the men\u2019s and women\u2019s team titles with Kenya second and Uganda third in each.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MIAMI Uganda\u2019s Jacob Kiplimo, the reigning Chicago Marathon champion, won his third consecutive men\u2019s crown on Saturday at the World Cross Country Championships. The 25-year-old completed the hat-trick over 10 kilometers in a winning time of 28min 18sec with Ethiopia\u2019s Berihu Aregawi 18sec back in a third consecutive runner-up finish, with Kenya\u2019s Daniel Ebenyo third …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":92137,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92125"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92139,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92125\/revisions\/92139"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}