Week in Review: Welteji's win in World Athletics Road Running Champs caps breakthrough season for Ethiopian runners
East African nation produced superb depth in women's 1,500 in 2023
For me, Faith Kipyegon’s third-place finish in the women’s mile in the inaugural World Athletics Road Running Championships in Riga, Latvia on Sunday did nothing to detract from the brilliance of her outdoor track and field season.
After setting world records of 3 minutes 49.11 seconds in the 1,500 meters, 4:07.64 in the mile, and 14:05.20 in the 5,000, and becoming the first woman in World Athletics Championships history to win the 1,500 and 5,000 in the same meet, the 29-year-old Kenyan superstar was no doubt fatigued at the end of a season in which she won all eight of her finals on the track. In addition, she won the 10-kilometer Sirikwa Cross Country Classic in Eldoret, Kenya in early February.
However, the 1-2 finish by Ethiopians Diribe Welteji and Freweyni Hailu in the women’s mile in Riga did put an exclamation point on a season in which the east African country of 127 million became only the second nation in history to have six or more women run 3:57.00 or faster in the 1,500 meters in the same year.
China had seven sub-3:57 performers in 1997, but that was a group of runners trained by Ma Junren, who was dropped as a coach on the Chinese Olympic track and field team prior to the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia after six of his athletes hd tested positive for performance enhancing drugs.
Ethiopian women have long exceled in the 5,000 and 10,000 on the track, as well as in the marathon on the roads, in the Olympic Games and World Championships. And Ethiopian-born runners won a combined three World titles in the women’s 1,500 for the countries of Bahrain and Sweden in 2007,’09, and ’13.
In addition, Genzebe Dibaba won the 1,500 for Ethiopia in the World Championships in Beijing in 2015, the same year that she set a world record of 3:50.07 that Kipyegon broke in June. But the country was not teeming with depth at the elite level of the 1,500 until recently.
In 2019, two Ethiopians broke 3:56 for the first time in the same year and Gudaf Tsegay won the bronze medal in the World Championships in Doha, Qatar. And last year, three Ethiopians ran under 3:57 and Tsegay finished second behind Kipyegon in the 1,500 in the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon before winning the 5,000 later in the meet.
But this year was a breakout season as four Ethiopians — Wetelji, Tsegay, Hirut Meshesha, and Birke Haylom — ran under 3:55 and two others — Hailu and Worknesh Mesele — ran 3:57.00 or faster.
Click here to check out my detailed report about the World Athletics Road Running Championships in Riga, Latvia on Sunday.
While the 26-year-old Tsegay won the 10,000 in the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary in August before crushing Kipyegon’s world record in the 5,000 with a 14:00.21 effort in the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene in Sept. 17, the 21-year-old Welteji placed second behind Kipyegon in the 1,500 in the World Championships. She then ran 3:53.93 in the Pre Classic for another runner-up finish behind Kipyegon while moving to 10th on the all-time world performer list before surging past Kipyegon in the final 200 meters of the race in Riga that was contested in breezy and cool conditions.
Welteji crossed the finish line in 4:20.98 while Kipyegon faded to third in 4:24.13 after being passed by Hailu (4:23.14) in the final 30 meters of the race.
“It was hard, the weather is not good for me,” Welteji said in a World Athletics post. “When I saw Faith in front, near the line, at that moment I decided to sprint. I could sense that she was tired, and I had it in my mind: 'I can beat her.'
“I came here to win, to write history and to motivate the new generations of our athletes.”
Room for improvement: One of the things that made the performances of Ethiopia’s female 1,500-meter runners so impressive during the outdoor track and field season was the relative youth of the six runners who ran 3:57.00 or faster.
Those half-dozen athletes, who rank second, third, fourth, fifth, eighth, and 13th on the yearly world performer list, have an average age of less than 22.
Diribe Wetelji, who ran 3:53.93, is 21. Gudaf Tsegay, who had a season best of 3:54.03, is 26, while Hirut Meshesha (3:54.87) is 22, Birke Haylom (3:54.93) is 17, Freweyni Hailu (3:55.68) is 22, and Worknesh Mesele (3:57.00) is 22.
If they can stay healthy, which is never a given in athletics, all six of them would appear to be capable of improving their performances in the seasons ahead as it is not uncommon for middle-distance runners to reach their peak years when they are in their late 20s.
What’s in a name?: Technically speaking, Diribe Welteji of Ethiopia and Hobbs Kessler of the U.S. set world records in the women’s and men’s road mile runs with their winning times of 4:20.98 and 3:56.13 in the inaugural World Athletics Road Running Championships in Riga, Latvia on Sunday.
However, it will be interesting to see how long it takes before the world records in the road mile are anywhere near the same level as those produced on the track.
With 2023 being the first year that World Athletics has maintained official world records in the road mile, Americans Nikki Hilitz and Sam Prakel had been credited with setting the inaugural world records of 4:27.67 and 4:01.21 in winning their respective races in the U.S. Road Mile Championships in Des Moines, Iowa on April 25.
Those performances did not become eligible for world record recognition until Sept. 1 because World Athletics had maintained that official recognition of a world record in the mile would require a time of 3:50.00 or better for men and 4:19.00 or better for women if it were run between January 1 and Sept. 1 of this year. When neither of those marks were met during the allotted time period, the yearly world-leading times of Hilitz and Prakel became eligible for the world record and they were officially ratified as such on Sept. 22.
Where does he go from here?: Hobbs Kessler of the U.S. was understandably excited after he had kicked to victory in the final 200 meters of the men’s mile in the World Athletics Road Running Championships in Riga, Latvia on Sunday.
It will now be interesting to see if he can make the U.S. Olympic team next year.
The 20-year-old runner who had set a U.S. prep record of 3:34.36 in the boys’ 1,500 meters while running for Skyline High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 2021, Kessler had signed a national letter of intent with NCAA distance power Northern Arizona University as a senior. But he later inked a professional contract with Adidas after crushing the previous national high school record of 3:38.26 that Alan Webb had set in 2001 while on his way to a prep record of 3:53.43 for the mile.
After being eliminated in the semifinals of the 1,500 in the U.S. Olympic Trials in 2021 in his first meet as a professional, Kessler did not advance out of his qualifying heat of the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships last year. However, he lowered his personal bests to 1:46.87 in the 800 and 2:16.46 in the 1,000 in a pair of meets in Europe.
He started the 2023 indoor season with a personal best of 7:39.00 in the 3,000 to finish sixth in the Boston University John Thomas Terrier Classic in January before finishing a disappointing 10th in 4:05.01 in the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston eight days later.
He had a strong start to his outdoor season by running a personal best of 3:32.61 in the 1,500 to place third in the Los Angeles Grand Prix at UCLA on May 27 and then lowered his 800 best to 1:45.80 while finishing third in the New York City Grand Prix on June 24. But those performances were followed by a disappointing sixth-place finish — in 3:36.08 — in the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon on July 9.
Kessler did not race again until early September when he ran 3:35.69 to finish fourth in the 1,500 in the ISTAF meet in Berlin and 1:46.09 to win the 800 in the Memorial Borisa Hanzekovica meet in Zagreb, Croatia.
He came to Riga eager to run well against a good — but far from great — field that only included one runner who had advanced to the final of the 1,500 in the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary in August.
Never far off the lead, Kessler was in seventh place when the 19-runner lead pack came through the first kilometer in 2:29 and he was running just off the left shoulder of first-place Ryan Mphahlele of South Africa at the three-minute mark.
Heeding the pre-race advice of training partner Nick Willis, who had told him to draft off people as long as he could, Kessler surged into the lead just after the 3:30 mark and crossed the finish line first in 3:56.13. Callum Elson of Great Britain finished second in 3:56.41 and American Sam Prakel was third in 3:56.43.
“It’s been a really up and down year and I luckily got in really good shape at the end of the season,” Kessler said in a World Athletics post. “The road mile is a very American event and we’re quite experienced in them. I’m very proud of myself.”
Although he ended up winning the race, he said he initially felt like he had made his move too early.
“There was a big headwind in the last 800 meters, and about 150 meters out I struck for home, but immediately regretted it as I got hit with a big blast of wind. I didn’t realize how close it was. I was waiting for them to run me down.”
Strong start, great finish: Team Kenya had a very good start to the World Athletics Road Running Championships in Riga, Latvia on Sunday when Beatrice Chebet and Lilian Rengeruk finished 1-2 in the women’s 5,000 meters. But the squad had an even better finish as Peres Jepchirchir led a 1-2-3 finish in the women’s half marathon — the fifth of six scheduled races — before Sabastian Sawe paced another medal sweep in the men’s half marathon to conclude the meet.
The sweep of the half marathon races must have been particularly sweet for the Kenyan team and its coaches as the nation had won a total of one medal in the 10,000-meter and marathon races in the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary in August.
That marked the first time since the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens that Kenyan runners had combined to win only a single medal in the men’s and women’s 10,000 meters and in the men’s and women’s marathon in a global title meet.
In the 13 global title competitions held from 2005 to 2022, Kenyan runners had won an average of four medals per meet in those four events, topped by a high of eight medals in the 2011 World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, where Kenyans swept the women’s 10,000 and marathon, and finished 1-2 in the men’s marathon.
Distance dominance: Kenya and Ethiopia, the world’s two dominant distance-running nations, combined to win 15 of the 18 possible medals in the World Athletics Road Running Championships in Riga, Latvia on Sunday.
The men’s mile, in which Americans Hobbs Kessler and Sam Prakel finished first and third, and Brit Callum Elson placed second, was the only event in which Kenyans, who won 10 total medals, or Ethiopians, who won five, did not win all the medals.
Notable performances: Ernest John Obiena of the Philippines and Bing Feng and Jianan Wang of China produced the top performances during the first three days of the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China last week.
Obiena won the men’s pole vault at 5.90 meters (19 feet 4¼ inches) last Friday, while Feng took the women’s discus at 67.93 (222-10) and Wang placed first in the men’s long jump at 8.22 (26-11¾) on Sunday.
Obiena, the runner-up in the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary in August, cleared 5.55 (18-2½), 5.75 (18-10¼) — which clinched the gold medal — and 5.90 on his first attempts before missing three times at 6.02 (19-9), which would have bettered the national record of 6.00 (19-8¼) that he had cleared twice earlier this season.
It marked the eighth time in 16 meets this year that Obiena had cleared 5.90 or higher.
Feng, the 2022 World champion in the women’s discus, had her best throw of the day in the first round. Her 67.93 effort was her second-best mark of the season behind the 68.20 (223-9) throw which had placed her third in the World Championships in Budapest.
Wang had a three-centimeter margin of victory in the men’s long jump as Murali Sreeshankar of India finished second at 8.19 (26-10½).
Wang had placed fifth in the long jump in the World Championships in Budapest after winning the title in 2022 after going from fifth place to first on his sixth – and final – jump of the competition.
Fresh starts: American Fred Kerley and Italian Marcell Jacobs, winners of the men’s 100 meters in the World Athletics Championships in 2022 and the Olympic Games in 2021, respectively, have made coaching changes as they approach the 2024 season that will be topped by the Olympic Games in Paris.
The 28-year-old Kerley and the 29-year-old Jacobs were each eliminated in the semifinals of the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary in August, and their season bests of 9.88 and 10.05 were well off their respective personal bests of 9.76 and 9.80.
Kerley, who is now being coached by Quincy Watts, the director of women’s cross-country and men’s and women’s track and field at USC, admitted in an Instagram post that there were risks to making a coaching change less than a year before the Olympics, but “I felt that I needed to bet on myself. I needed to prove to myself that I was all in and that meant seeking the guidance of COACH WATTS. I’m entrusting him to bring out the best version of myself in the most important athletic year of my career.”
The Italian track and field federation announced that Jacobs will be training with Rana Reider, who is based in Florida and coaches, among other athletes, American Trayvon Bromell, the bronze medalist in the men’s 100 in the World Championships last year.
Reider resolved a case with the U.S. Center for SafeSport in May of this year in which he agreed to serve a one-year probation that will include his participation in an online SafeSport education program.
A press release from Griffin & Stevens Law Firm, PLLC, stated that Reider “acknowledged his consensual romantic relationship with an adult athlete,” but he “was not found in violation of any other sexual misconduct claims.”
Kerley, who had been training with Grenadan coach Alleyne Francique since his college days at Texas A&M, won a bronze medal in the men’s 400 meters in the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Qatar before he made a bold decision in 2021 to focus his attention on the 100 and 200.
Watts, his new coach, set a then-Olympic record of 43.50 seconds in the winning the 400 in the 1992 Games in Barcelona after previously lowering the Olympic record to 43.71 in winning a semifinal in which he eased up in the final 20 meters of the race.
Watts and fellow coach Joanna Hayes, the 2004 Olympic champion in the women’s 100 hurdles, have been working with intermediate hurdler Rai Benjamin of the U.S. for several years. Watts also guided American Michael Norman to the 2022 World title in the men’s 400 before Norman chose to be coached by John Smith shortly before the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships were held in early July of this year.
Jacobs had been coached by Paolo Camossi since 2015.
Camossi, winner of the 2001 World indoor title in the men’s triple jump, began working with Jacobs when his primary event was the long jump. But he guided him to an unlooked-for victory in the 100 in the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Jacobs had entered the meet with a personal best of 9.95 seconds. But he proceeded to run 9.94 in his qualifying heat before improving to 9.84 in the semifinals and a European record of 9.80 in the final while becoming the first Italian to win an Olympic title in the men’s 100.
Citing an injury, Jacobs did not race again in 2021. But he had an outstanding indoor season in 2022 which he capped with a come-from-behind victory over Christian Coleman of the U.S. in the 60-meter dash in the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade, Serbia in March.
However, he has been hampered by injuries since then.
He advanced to the semifinals of the 100 in the World Championships last year, but withdrew due to a thigh injury.
He came back to win the 100 in 9.95 in the European Championships in Munich the following month, but that was the last time he has broken 10 seconds.
Turning pro: Matthew Boling announced last week that he has signed a professional contract and will give up his final year of eligibility at the University of Georgia.
Boling, who was awarded an undergraduate degree in marketing last spring, won the NCAA indoor title in the men’s 200 meters in 2021 and in March of this year. But he had a disappointing collegiate outdoor season as he was eliminated in the semifinals of the 200 in the NCAA Championships after having finished second in that event and sixth in the 100 last year.
Following the end of the collegiate season, he lowered his personal best in the 400 to 45.17 seconds while finishing sixth in the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships in early July. That performance earned him a spot in the U.S. 1,600 relay pool for the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary in August when he won a pair of gold medals.
First, he ran a 45.13-second third leg on an American team that won the mixed-sex 1,600 relay in a world record of 3:09.34 on the first night of the nine-day meet. Then he had a 44.16 split on a U.S. men’s squad that won its qualifying heat in 2:58.47 seven days later.
Although the 23-year-old Boling did not run in the following night’s final that was won by an American foursome in 2:57.31, he was awarded a gold medal because he ran for the U.S. in the qualifying heat.
In addition to his best of 45.17 in the 400, Boling has run 9.98 in the 100 and 19.92 in the 200, and leaped 8.25 (27-0¾) in the long jump indoors.
Hanging up her spikes: Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands, winner of the women’s 200 meters in the 2015 and ’17 World Athletics Championships, announced last week that she was retiring.
The 31-year-old Schippers set a European record of 21.63 seconds in defeating Elaine Thompson of Jamaica (21.66) for the 200-meter title in the 2015 World Championships in Beijing after having run a personal best of 10.81 in the 100 earlier in the meet while finishing second to Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica (10.76).
Schippers, who finished second in the 200 and fifth in the 100 in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, advanced to the final of the 100 in the 2019 World Championships in Doha, Qatar, but she withdrew from that event with an injury that kept her out of the 200.
She was slowed by injuries for the remainder of her career and her last race had come in July of last year when she ran 11.37 to finish second in a qualifying heat of a meet in Kortijk, Belgium.
The multi-talented Schippers was the bronze medalist in the heptathlon in the 2013 World Championships in Moscow and totaled a personal best of 6,545 points in 2014 before focusing her attention on the sprints in 2015.
In a touching post announcing her retirement on her Instagram account, a video that highlights Schippers’ career from a young girl to a World-champion sprinter is followed by a shot of her running into a meadow with her dog and the following words appearing on the screen. THE TRACK ENDS HERE TODAY. TIME TO EXPLORE NEW PATHS. THANK YOU FOR THE HEARTWARMING SUPPORT.
Changes finalized: The World Athletics Council announced last week that the 2024 World Cross Country Championships will be held in Belgrade, Serbia on March 30 of next year.
The meet was originally scheduled to be held in Medulin and Pula in Croatia on February 10, but World Athletics announced on Sept. 15 that those plans had been nixed because it believed preparations for hosting the meet had not advanced sufficiently.
Belgrade had hosted the World Athletics Indoor Championships in March of 2022 after previously hosting meets such as the 1962 European Athletics Championships, the 2013 European Cross Country Championships and the 2017 European Athletics Indoor Championships.
Next year’s global cross country title meet will be held in the Park of Friendship, next to the Danube River, in the heart of Belgrade.
“Belgrade is establishing itself as a reliable host of world-class competitions,” World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said in the announcement. “Following a memorable 2022 World Indoor Championships we are confident that the organization of our 2024 World Cross Country Championships is in a safe pair of hands.”
In other news, the Council approved the dates of August 4-9 for the 2026 World Athletics U20 (under 20) Championships in Eugene, Oregon, and Sept. 19-20 for the 2026 World Athletics Road Running Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The World Athletics Road Running Championships, which were held for the first time in Riga, Latvia on Sunday, will be held on an annual basis starting in the 2025 when the meet will be staged in San Diego, California.
Looking good: The North Carolina State women’s cross country team was without Katelyn Tuohy and Amaris Tyynismaa in the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational last Friday, but the top-ranked Wolfpack still defeated the host Fighting Irish, 44-53, for the women’s title.
Senior Kelsey Chmiel, who finished third in the NCAA championships last November, paced North Carolina State with a second-place time of 16:15.1 over the 5,000-meter layout at Burke Golf Course. But it was the performances of freshmen Leah Stephens (fourth in 16:24.0), Grace Hartman (ninth in 16:36.6), and Hannah Gapes (23rd in 17:04.3) that might have been most pleasing to Wolfpack coach Laurie Henes.
“I’m thrilled with today,” Henes said. “I mean, they’ve made good jumps in workouts, and obviously a true freshman like Leah Stephens finishing fourth… I’m over the top happy with that. She ran like a veteran today.”
While Chmiel, Stephens and Hartman were the Nos. 1-3 runners for NC State, juniors Gionna Quarzo (14th in 16:51.0) and Jenna Schulz (15th in 16:51.1) rounded out the scoring for the two-time defending NCAA champions.
Notre Dame, the No. 4-ranked team in the nation by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCA) poll, was led by junior Siona Chisholm (fifth in 16:26.4) and senior Olivia Markezich (sixth in 16:31.6).
Freshman Doris Lemngole of No. 22-ranked Alabama won the race in 16:05.9 while pacing the Crimson Tide to a third-place total of 73 points.
It was the second consecutive victory of the season for Lemngole, a 21-year-old Kenyan who has a personal best of 9:35.85 in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and has also run 14:40 for five kilometers on the road.
Chisholm paced a 20-runner lead pack through the first mile in 5:15.0, but Lemngole, Chmiel and senior Alyson Churchill of Florida State were clear of the field when Lemngole came through 4,000 meters in 13:05.6.
Lemngole pulled away after that as she covered the final kilometer of the race in 3:00.3 and looked to be running well within herself during the final 200 meters of the race.
Churchill finished third in 16:15.8, seven tenths of a second behind Chmiel.
What’s ahead?: The North Carolina State women’s cross country team will take its No. 1 national ranking into the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational in Madison, Wisconsin on Oct. 13, but coach Laurie Henes was unsure as of last Friday if either Katelyn Tuohy or Amaris Tyynismaa would run in their first races of the season there.
Henes said that defending NCAA champion Tuohy had a “killer workout” while running over the course before the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational last Friday, but that Tyynismma, who transferred to NC State after finishing ninth for Alabama in the NCAA meet last year, had gotten a late start to her training during the summer.
“Probably not yet,” Henes said when she was asked if her team would be at full strength for the Nuttycombe meet. “We’ll see how the next two weeks go and then make a decision.”
Making her way back: After winning the women’s title in the NCAA cross country meet last November and rolling to runaway victories in the 3,000 and 5,000 meters in the NCAA indoor track and field championship in early March, Katelyn Tuohy of North Carolina State entered the outdoor track and field championships in early June intent on becoming the first woman in meet history to win both the 1,500 and 5,000.
However, things did not go as planned. Touhy finished seventh in the 1,500 in 4:11.40 after fading badly in the home straightaway and then withdrew from the 5,000, the event in which she was the defending champion, because she wasn’t feeling well.
“It was more like a bad month,” Tuohy said when asked last Friday at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational if she just had a bad day. “I had not been feeling well for a while before that meet, but I took some time off after that and it helped.”
Tuohy came back to finish seventh in the women’s 5,000 in 15:15.26 in the USA Track & Field Outdoor Championships on July 9.
She has not raced since then, but said last week that she was feeling good and her training was going well.
Runner to watch: Chandler Gibbens of the University of Kansas won his season-opening race in winning the men’s title in the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational cross country meet last Friday.
The Jayhawk senior clocked 23:08.4 over the five-mile layout at Burke Golf Course to turn back Alabama’s junior duo of Hillary Cheruiyot, who finished second in 23:10.6, and Victor Kiprop, who placed third in 23:12.3.
Notre Dame, the No. 9-ranked team in the country, won the team title with an 87-95 victory over second-place Florida State. Alabama finished third with 114 points.
Junior Joshua Methner placed sixth in 23:27.2 for Notre Dame, which had a 38-second gap between its No. 1 and No. 5 finishers.
Gibbens had won the 5,000 and 10,000 in the Big 12 Conference Championships in May, but he finished a disappointing 17th in the 5,000 in the NCAA Championships in early June, timing 14:24.71 in a slow tactical race after running a personal best — and school record — of 13:28.71 while finishing second in the Stanford invitational on March 3.
He was always amongst the lead pack in the Piane meet as he came through the mile in 4:36.0 and the halfway mark in 11:40.2.
The front group was down to six runners when he passed the 5,130-meter mark in 15:10.6 and it had been reduced to Gibbens and the Kenyan duo of Cheruiyot and Kiprop when he timed 20:22.5 at the 6,940 meters.
He gradually pulled away after that as he clocked 2:45.9 for the final 1,105 meters — or so — of the race.