by Clay Shaw
Photography by Clay Shaw and Karen Mitchell
3.29.24 Belgrade, Serbia, 2024 World Cross Country—Beatrice Chebet and Jacob Kiplomo, defending champions are back.
Beatrice Chebet of Kenya and Jacob Kiplomo of Uganda, who won at the 2023 World Athletics Cross Country Championship, are ready and confident to defend their titles that they won in hot weather in Bathurst, Australia. Surprisingly the weather may reach 80 degrees in tomorrow’s mid afternoon races. The races are held in Friendship Park near the banks of the Danube River in New Belgrade. Over 500 athletes from 51 counties are scheduled to race.
Sebastian Coe, president of World Athletics, noted “African athletes have consistently supported our championships whether in Europe or the United States.” Coe said that “he would like to see more European nations supporting and traveling to these championships.”
Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal of Norway said, “I like cross country and since I’ve been European champion for so many years, I thought it would be something fun to do, to try to run the worlds also.” (Karoline is in good form, having just won the NYC Half Marathon on March 17th.)
Kudos were given to the Belgrade organizing committee that was given quite a compacted time frame to stage the event. Belgrade has hosted four major European and World Championships in the past eleven years.
Looking forward to the races tomorrow.
The next World Athletics Cross Country Championships will be on January 10, 2026 in Tallahassee, Florida, making it much more accessible for USA cross country fans to attend. The last time this event was in the US was 1992 in Boston.
Categories: Race Coverage
Runner's Gazette 
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