{"id":35537,"date":"2026-01-11T12:08:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T12:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=35537"},"modified":"2026-01-11T12:08:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T12:08:15","slug":"kiplimo-captures-third-straight-world-cross-country-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=35537","title":{"rendered":"Kiplimo captures third straight world cross country title"},"content":{"rendered":"
Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo, the reigning Chicago Marathon champion, won his third consecutive men’s crown on Saturday at the World Cross Country Championships.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old completed the hat-trick over 10 kilometers in a winning time of 28min 18sec with Ethiopia’s Berihu Aregawi 18sec back in a third consecutive runner-up finish, with Kenya’s Daniel Ebenyo third in 28:45.<\/p>\n

Kiplimo became only the fourth man to win three world cross country titles in a row after Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele (2002-2006) and the Kenyans Paul Tergat (1995-1999) and John Ngugi (1986-1989).<\/p>\n

“To win three times, I’m so happy about it,” Kiplimo said. “I think it’s about the consistency in your training. Another thing it’s about is believing in yourself.”<\/p>\n

Kiplimo was last year’s 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.<\/p>\n

“Today was the hardest one,” Kiplimo said.<\/p>\n

Agnes Ngetich, the world 10km record holder, took the women’s title in 31:28 over 10km to deliver Kenya a 10th consecutive women’s crown at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee, Florida.<\/p>\n

Ngetich defeated Uganda’s Joy Cheptoyek by 42 seconds in a dominant performance with Ethiopia’s Senayet Getachew third in 32:13 over a course featuring sand, water and mud zones plus barriers resembling fallen logs.<\/p>\n

In the men’s 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.<\/p>\n

Kiplimo surged ahead by eight seconds on Aregawi entering the final kilometer and raced across the finish line to cheers.<\/p>\n

He does not expect to seek a fourth world cross country crown as he will turn his attention to the marathon.<\/p>\n

“I think now maybe this one is going to be the last one because of the marathon… because I’ll be training for the marathon,” Kiplimo said.<\/p>\n

Aregawi, 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.<\/p>\n

Jimmy Gressier, the Frenchman who had been tipped for a podium finish after his shock 10,000m victory on the track at last year’s world championships, was a disappointing 15th.<\/p>\n

Ngetich dominates\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet, the reigning 5,000 and 10,000m champion, did not seek a third consecutive women’s title because she is beginning a 2026 maternity break.<\/p>\n

That left Ngetich to continue Kenya’s title streak and she did so in epic fashion.<\/p>\n

Ngetich 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.<\/p>\n

Ngetich led by 35 seconds after seven kilometers and stayed in command to the finish to win by the second-largest margin in the race’s history, trailing only the 1980 victory of Norway’s Greta Waitz by 44 seconds over 4.82km.<\/p>\n

It was Ngetich’s first cross country competition since winning on home soil in last February’s Sirikwa Classic.<\/p>\n

Ngetich was third behind Chebet at the 2023 worlds and fourth in a Kenyan top-four sweep in 2024.<\/p>\n

Ethiopia swept the men’s and women’s team titles with Kenya second and Uganda third in each.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo, the reigning Chicago Marathon champion, won his third consecutive men’s 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’s Berihu Aregawi 18sec back in a third consecutive runner-up finish, with Kenya’s Daniel Ebenyo third in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35537\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}