WXC Preview: Why Kenya is tipped to win title in women’s senior race
Ahead of the World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Belgrade, set for Saturday, March 30, 2024, the Kenyan team is tipped to win the title again.
In the past eight senior women’s titles, the Kenyan team has emerged as the title winners, and given the caliber of the 2024 team, hopes are high that the same will be repeated.
Beatrice Chebet, the World Cross Country champion, leads the squad. Although she recently finished fourth at the Kenyan Cross Country Championships, it would be an unwise move to write off Chebet as a nonstarter in Belgrade.
The rivals who finished ahead of her at the Kenya Cross Country will be her rivals in Belgrade.
As the defending champion, eyes will be on Chebet, who has done remarkably well in recent actions; she won the 5km at the World Road Running Championships in Riga. Add that to the silver and bronze medals over 5000m at the World Championships and a gold medal at the same distance at the Commonwealth Games and African Championships.
Chebet will, however, be wary of Agnes Ngetich, a bronze medallist in Bathurst last year. The youngster Ngetich finished sixth in the 10,000m at the World Championships in Budapest, but in 2024 she has already achieved top form.
She broke the world 10km record with a 28:46 run in Valencia, having passed through 5km in 14:13, equalling Chebet’s world record for that distance, according to World Athletics.
Back home, Ng'etich won Kenya Cross Country Championships, beating her top rival and friend Immaculate Anyango by three seconds. Anyango is also Belgrade-bound.
Ambitious Anyango has managed some top-level performances in the recent past. In November last year, she reduced her 10km personal best to 30:01 in Lille. When finishing second in Valencia in January, clocking 28:57, she chopped off more than a minute, and that made her the second-fastest woman in history for the distance. 
Lilian Kasait Rengeruk, Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi, and Cintia Chepngeno are the other members of the Kenyan team.
The most memorable Kenyan performance at the World Cross Country was a clean sweep of the top six positions at the 2017 showpiece.
Ethiopia's threat
However, Chebet and her teammates must be sweating when they look at the composition of the Ethiopian team.
Girmawit Gebrzihair, who won Ethiopia’s national trial race and has a half marathon personal best of 1:04:14, will be competing at her first major championships as a senior.
Tadelech Bekele, the two-time Amsterdam Marathon champion who last represented Ethiopia back in 2014 at the African Cross Country Championships, is in the mix.
Sisay Meseret Gola and teenagers Bertukan Welde and Mebrat Gidey complete the Ethiopian squad.
Rachael Chebet, who is the best non-Kenyan/Ethiopian performer at the World Cross in the past decade, leads the Ugandan team.
She was a fourth-place finisher in 2019 and won the Ugandan cross-country title by 25 seconds recently.
Burundi have tried to assert themselves in the athletics competition and will be out to try their best again in Belgrade. Their team is led by Francine Niyomukunzi, who has performed well on the World Cross Country Tour this year by winning in San Giorgio Su Legnano back in January.
That was followed by a national 10km record of 30:42 in Valencia.
Weini Kelati, the US cross-country champion Weini Kelati, world 10,000m eighth-place finisher Jessica Warner-Judd of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Anjelina Nadai Lohalith of the Athlete Refugee Team will participate.
It is worth noting that Kenya, Ethiopia, and Uganda have shared the team medals at the past two editions. Could this year be different?
