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(c) 2026 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved. Published with permission COPENHAGEN (20-Sep) -- Agnes Ngetich absolutely destroyed a high-class field in the half-marathon this morning at the second World Athletics Road Running Championships.  The 25 year-old Kenyan, who already earned a world title earlier this year at the World Athletics Cross Country Championships, ran alone through the streets of the Danish capital to a women's only world record of 1:05:15.  She won by a hefty 50 seconds, and became the first woman in history to win both the world cross country and half-marathon titles in the same year. But Ngetich endured a painful final 400 meters.  She had the gold medal in the bag, but she wasn't sure if she could eclipse Peres Jepchirchir's women-only world record of 1:05:16.  With the sun at her back, she gave it everything she had in the final push to the line. "I thought I missed the world record by two seconds or three seconds," Ngetich told Race Results Weekly while wrapped in a Kenyan flag.  "It's me alone and a strong wind coming to us.  I was like, let me just try." Her one-second margin over Jepchirchir's record was worth a USD 50,000 bonus from World Athletics which will be added to her first place prize money of USD 30,000 (she will surely receive an additional bonus from her kit sponsor, adidas).  Winning the race was more important, she said, but getting the record was a nice bonus. "If I don't get it, it's OK; I have a medal already," Ngetich recalled telling herself in those final meters.  "I'm so happy because I still got the world record." Ngetich used the same simple strategy today that she employed to become world cross country champion in Tallahassee last January: push right from the gun.  She split the first kilometer in three minutes flat, and went through 5K in 15:12.  She already had a ten-second gap on her nearest chaser by that point, Florence Niyonkuru of Rwanda, a gap which would grow to 26 seconds by 10K (30:39).  The athletes in the chase pack --eight women strong-- quickly began to focus on each other, instead.  Ngetich was just too far ahead. "I noticed Agnes taking off but I knew I had to stick to my own pace," said Ngetich's teammate Veronica Loleo.  "She was going too fast from the very beginning.  So I decided to go with the pack." Unaware of how far ahead she was, Ngetich kept pressing.  She stayed focused on her splits, and imagined what it would be like to earn another gold medal. "Adding another medal to my gallery, I'm so happy," she said.  "I'm so grateful." The battle for the silver and bronze medals was intense.  That chase pack of eight women at 10K dwindled to just three by 20K: Niyonkuru, Loleo, and another Kenyan, Daisilah Jerono.  Americans Emma Grace Hurley, Weini Kelati, and Jess McClain were just a few seconds back (as a team they were in the silver medal position behind Kenya).  In the final 100 meters before the finish, Loleo was able to sprint away from Niyonkuru to take the silver in 1:06:05.  Niyonkuru was already clear of Jerono, and got the bronze in a national record 1:06:08. "I didn't expect to be on the podium, so for me I'm very happy," said Loleo.  "It is my first championships. This first championship medal I will award to my family and coach." Hurley, who is training for her marathon debut at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon on October 11, finished an impressive fifth in 1:06:23.  Her mark was not only a personal best, but also a USA national record for an all-women's race.  Kelati, the USA open record holder, ran 1:06:35 for sixth, and McClain got seventh in a personal best 1:06:53. "I'm very excited," said Hurley, who also owns the national record for 8K on the roads.  "I was super-focused on being in the top 10 today, and it's exciting to come away with a women's record as well.  I have been so happy all week just to be here, and I was so excited for the opportunity to race against the best of the best." Remarkably, both Hurley and McClain were in danger of being left off the team after they were misdirected off course while leading at the national half-marathon championships last March in Atlanta which was used as the team selection race.  But thanks to behind-the-scenes work by USATF, the United States was allowed to enter a larger team for these championships where Hurley, McClain and Ednah Kurgat (the three misdirected athletes) could join the other women who were selected based on the official order of finish (Team USATF was still limited to four athletes who were eligible to score). "It was really important to us to send the strongest possible team to compete against the best in the world here today," said Jay Holder, USATF's communications chief.  He continued: "We wanted to send our strongest team, but we wanted to honor our selection process.  So, we worked hand-in-hand with World Athletics, and they worked really hard to help us achieve those goals." The official team results had Kenya with the gold medal (3:17:33 total time for their best three finishers), USA second (3:19:51), and Ethiopia third (3:22:40). ALMGREN OUTLASTS KIPKORIR FOR MEN'S GOLD The men's race was a closely-contested affair between four athletes: Andreas Almgren of Sweden, Nicholas Kipkorir of Kenya, Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda and Tadese Worku of Ethiopia.  They were the final survivors of an early break made possible by a from-the-gun surge by American record holder Conner Mantz, then incessant pushing by Kipkorir.  The quartet went through 15K in 41:47, and over the next five kilometers Worku was dropped (he would finish fourth in a personal best 58:35). Kipkorir thought that a fast pace was his best strategy. "I decided to push because there was a strong team in the field," Kipkorir told Race Results Weekly, referring to his competitors.  "It was not easy, that is why I decided to push to make a smaller group to go to finishing." In the final six kilometers, Cheptegei struggled to stay in contact with Kipkorir and Almgren.  The two-time Olympic gold medalist would gain a stride, then lose a stride, and managed to get to 20-K with both of his opponents.  But in the final kilometer, when Kipkorir picked up the pace again, Cheptegei fell back.  The three-time world 10,000m champion who won the world marathon title in 2020 would finish third in 58:26, a personal best. "The race was really, really good and I'm so happy to be in the podium again," Cheptegei told reporters.  "After three years of not running in my national colors, it felt really good to fight for position.  I'm grateful for third place today." The battle for gold came down to the final 100 meters.  Kipkorir surged several times, but Almgren --the European 10,000m champion-- covered every move.  Finally as the pair crossed the 21K mark just before the finish, Almgren launched an all-out sprint and put a five-second gap on Kipkorir by the finish.  Almgren, who will make his marathon debut in New York on November 1, ran a European record 58:06 and became the first European world half-marathon champion since Italy's Stefano Baldini in 1996. "It means so much," said Almgren, who appeared to be in a state of disbelief.  "I've had quite a few problems in my career, a lot of fourth places in the Europeans and I got a bronze at the World last year (in the 10,000m), and I was like, now I need to start getting the gold medals.  To get the gold medal first in Birmingham in the 10K (at the European Championships) and be world champion in the half-marathon means so much." Kipkorir was upbeat and genuinely pleased with his silver medal. "I'm feeling great for securing the silver medal in the world road championship 2026," said Kipkorir.  "I am proud to have the silver.  That was my prayers: to be a bronze, silver or gold." Mantz, who spent most of 2026 recovering from two sacral stress fractures, finished 12th in 1:00:08 and helped Team USATF secure the bronze medal in a total time of 3:01:34 (Kenya got the gold in 2:56:30 and Ethiopia the silver in 2:59:47).  He was happy to be back at the top level of the sport. "Last night my coach (Ed Eyestone) called me and talked through the game plan," Mantz said.  "The game plan was just to be grateful out there.  Be grateful to be in the race again.  Felt grateful through 10K (his split was 27:55), but by the time I was running three-minute kilometers it was less gratitude and more regret for thinking I could get a medal today.  My workouts are going well, but that doesn't mean I'm in peak fitness." Mantz, the USA marathon record holder with a 2:04:43 personal best, will run the TCS New York City Marathon in November. **   This was the 26th edition of the World Half-Marathon championships which was rolled into the World Athletics Road Running Championships (along with the mile and 5K) for the first time in Riga, Latvia, in 2023.  This is the second time that the World Half-Marathon Championships was held in Copenhagen. The first time was in 2014 and it was at that event that the elite races were married with a mass-participation event for the first time.  Today, some 45,000 runners competed in the mass race behind the elites. PHOTO: Agnes Ngetich of Kenya just after winning the 2026 world-half-marathon championships in a women-only world record of 1:05:15 (photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)    

Running USA Director of Operations Dr. Michael Clemons takes a look at the results of the 2026 Global Runner Survey sponsored by Active Network, one of the industry’s most comprehensive snapshots of runner behaviors, preferences and motivations. This webinar explores key findings on participation trends, race selection, spending habits, training and what today’s runners value most from events. Michael breaks down what the data means for race directors, event organizers and industry professionals, with practical takeaways to help inform planning and decision-making for the year ahead. Whether you’re looking to attract new participants or better serve your existing community, you’ll gain insights you can put to work immediately.

Running USA research webinar presented by Dr. Michael Clemons, Operations Director, on Thursday, June 25, 2026.

(c) 2026 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved. Published with permission. (18-Jun) -- Ryan Ford of the On Athletics Club in Boulder, Colo., is a 2:05:46 marathoner, and a 59:48 half-marathoner.  That makes him one of just four Americans in history who have broken 2:06:00 for the marathon and 60:00 for the half-marathon, under all conditions (the others are Conner Mantz, Zouhair Talbi, and Ryan Hall). But according to his statistics page at WorldAthletics.com his 10K PB is just 30:22.  That's the stat next to his name on the start list for Sunday's B.A.A. 10K in Boston, a World Athletics Label race he'll be running for the first time.  Seeing that stat on the start list gave him a chuckle. "When I saw that I said I guess I only ran one road 10K," Ford told Race Results Weekly in a telephone interview from Boulder yesterday.  "And it was that one at altitude." Ford was referring to the Bolder Boulder 10K last month where, at 1655m/5430ft elevation, he ran that time just five weeks after Boston.  He also ran (and won) the 2025 Cotton Row Run 10K in his hometown of Huntsville, Ala., in 29:04. That race is not on the World Athletics official calendar, so the mark wasn't accepted for the W.A. database. "I've run road races around there," Ford continued, referring to the 10-kilometer distance.  "I've run Manchester (in Connecticut), which is a little under five miles, and I've done a 5-mile road race (the Crazy 8's 8K in Kingsport, Tenn.), and much longer road races.  But I guess I've never run a 10K besides those two when I'm in good shape.  That will be nice to race that for my World Athletics page." As more fast, top-level half-marathons, like the Aramco Houston Half and the Valencia Half, have taken center stage, an increasing number of athletes enter races at that distance in top shape and end up recording unofficial 10K PB's along the way.  Ford is no exception.  At the 2026 United Airlines NYC Half, he went through 10K in 27:58 on his way to a 60:22 finish.  He also split 28:18 at the Aramco Houston Half-Marathon last January (on his way to a 59:48 PB), and 28:46 at the same race the year before. But at the race in New York, Ford barely noticed this 10K split. That's because he was focused on competing, not setting a time. "I think I glanced over and I think I saw that it was around 28 minutes," Ford said.  "Just didn't think about it too much, though.  Didn't think about what is that per mile, and all this stuff.  I also knew that we had maybe started out the race, the first couple of miles, pretty fast.  So, I didn't know what pace we were currently running.  It's hard not to glance at the clock but I tried to not think about it too much, to be honest." Since joining the On Athletics Club last October after his previous training group, ZAP Endurance in Blowing Rock, N.C., folded, Ford has raised his expectations.  He's one of three men in the club's road sub-group (the other two are Joe Klecker and Kenyan Patrick Kiprop, who is also running in Boston on Sunday).  Under head coach Dathan Ritzenhein and his assistant Laura Thweatt, the 28 year-old Ford has become a world class athlete, a remarkable achievement for a runner who entered the NCAA system at the University of Tennessee-Martin in 2016 with a two-mile PB of just 9:21.18. "Ryan has been such a great addition to the team," said Ritzenhein in an e-mail.  "He doesn't think about what is on the plan, he just does whatever you tell him to do.  He has complete trust and belief in himself and us." Ford said that adapting to Ritzenhein's coaching has felt natural.  The training isn't that different from ZAP under his former coach Pete Rea.  But the club has so many high level athletes --like Olympic and world medalists Hellen Obiri, Yared Nuguse, and Geordie Beamish-- that the club mentality is different.  The OAC exists to create national and international champions. "ZAP is a little bit more laid back, and OAC is more like organized with the ways we are doing things," Ford explained.  "It's very set-up, and we have a lot of stuff at our disposal that we didn't have at ZAP.  At the end of the day, the training is pretty similar." A big difference for Ford has been that long runs are anything but slow. "At OAC definitely more steady, aggressive long runs versus at ZAP," Ford said.  "At ZAP we would do easier long runs but have maybe some one to two-minute pick-ups at the end of a long run to kind of get a workout out of it.  But here the long run is a big focus.  I'll be running 5:15 to 5:30 pace for 20+ miles on any given long run, pretty much.  Never really happened at ZAP." Ford has developed his talents slowly, both during his NCAA career and his three years with ZAP.  Because of the COVID-19 pandemic he ran for six years in the NCAA system, five with University of Tennessee-Martin and the last year with Iowa State.  That long incubation period gave Ford time to develop more intentionally.  By the time he finished up at Iowa State, his 5000m best was 13:34.79 and his 10,000m best was 28:34.35.  He finished 47th at the 2021 NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships, the fifth and final scorer for the Cyclones who finished second to Northern Arizona. "Everybody kind of progresses differently," Ford observed.  "Maybe some of these people (his OAC teammates) were doing more serious training in high school and that led them to maybe a bigger program as a freshman in the NCAA, versus I did six years in the NCAA because of COVID.  It wasn't until my sixth and final year that I transferred to a big program like Iowa State and actually that final year of college I improved 30 seconds in the 5-K and around a minute in the 10-K.  I was thinking, wow, what if I was here as a freshman?  But in high school my times were not good enough.  I wouldn't have been in that kind of program from the start.  Maybe that slowed down my progression a little bit, but it got me to where I am now." Ford likes racing in Boston.  Competing at the Boston Marathon in 2025 while he was still at ZAP, he ran 2:08:00 and finished tenth, a performance he called "the race of my life" when asked about it.  He's guardedly optimistic about competing on Sunday because over the last couple of weeks he has finally felt like he has his legs under him again.  His recovery from the Boston Marathon has been slow due at least in part to those fast downhill miles early in the race where his quads got pounded. "I feel like I'm mostly back now," Ford said.  "To be honest, this has been the longest my legs have felt beat-up after a marathon.  This is my fourth marathon, but I ran a pretty aggressive race.  I know the first half of Boston is easier, but my first half was very fast (1:01:52), much faster than I went out before, and I think that played into that last 10-K when I started to slow down a bit." Sunday's 10K is mostly flat.  The course goes from Back Bay, into Cambridge, returns to Back Bay, passes through the Boston Marathon finish line, then finishes adjacent to the Public Garden and Boston Common on Charles Street.  The highest elevation on the course is only six meters above the start line, Longfellow Bridge between Boston and Cambridge.  Ford is almost certain to smash his official 10K PB, but that's not what he's focused on. "I'm starting to come around and starting to feel good again," he said.  "Just looking at the field I want to, again, focus on competing.  I don't know exactly how fast the course is or what time I would shoot for.  I just want to feel like I'm in the race and relevant, hopefully be able to cover some moves and get back to practicing some racing tactics.  Hopefully have a good day I guess.  If I could be up there and place well I'd be very happy with the weekend." * The 14th annual B.A.A. 10K presented by Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute starts at 8:00 a.m.  The professional start lists and prize money details are here: https://www.baa.org/races/boston-10k/pro-field/.  The open division winners will earn $12,000, and a $7500 course record bonus is available for both men (27:19) and women (30:36).  The race also has pro wheelchair and para divisions with separate prize money purses. Sunday morning's weather should be cool for late June, about 64F/18C, but with high humidity (about 70%).  Boston Athletic Association officials are expecting a total field size of about 10,000 runners (the 2025 race had 7615 finishers when it rained and the race was nearly cancelled due to the threat of thunderstorms). PHOTO: Ryan Ford of the On Athletics Club (photo courtesy of On)