Kenya undisputed world cross country champions by a mile
Athletics Kenya President Jack Tuwei (third left) poses with senior women's 10km team on April 01, 2024 upon arrival at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport from Serbia where they swept the first five positions in their category to also win the team gold during the World Athletics Cross Country Championships held last Saturday in Belgrade.
What you need to know:
- For the umpteenth time Kenya, in dominant fashion, was crowned winners of the World Cross Country Championships
- It was a joy to see the magnificent and assured red and black cladded Kenya taking the rest of the world to the cleaners
- Truth be told, this cross country business has been Kenya’s property for many, many years
In October last year, American sprinter Noah Lyles won both the 100m and 200m titles at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest becoming the first man to win a sprint double at that level since Usain Bolt in 2015.
It was Lyles’ third straight world 200m gold as he claimed a treble at the championships by adding the 4x100m relay gold to his collection.
At a press conference in Budapest, Lyles said thus: “You know what hurts me the most is that I have to watch the NBA Finals and they have ‘world champion’ on their head. World champion of what? The United States? Don’t get me wrong. I love the U.S. — at times — but that ain’t the world. That is not the world. We are the world. We have almost every country out here fighting, thriving, putting on their flag to show that they are represented. There ain’t no flags in the NBA. We gotta do more. We gotta be presented to the world.”
Some NBA stars were clearly not happy with Lyles’ statement.
Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant, a two-time NBA Finals MVP, led in the ripostes.
“Somebody help this brother,” he wrote on Instagram.
But the reigning world 100m and 200m had a point.
Whereas the NBA could feel it is the best basketball league in the world attracting the world’s best players, the winner of that league is not a world champion.
Same case with other high profile national, regional and continental tournaments. Take the popular Uefa Champions League for instance. It may, every year, feature perhaps all the world’s best football players, but the winner of that competition is not and will never be declared a world champion.
American Sha’Carri Richardson, who won the women’s 100 meters in Budapest last year also weighed in.
“The organization (NBA) have players from different countries but do they compete against different countries? You have to go against the world in order to be a world champion.”
Where am I going with this, you may be wondering?
Last Saturday, something beautiful – for a Kenyan that is – happened in Belgrade, Serbia.
For the umpteenth time Kenya, in dominant fashion, was crowned winners of the World Cross Country Championships, the biggest and most important international cross country competition.
The 2024 Belgrade championship attracted 485 athletes representing 51 nations.
Kenya finished top of the medal table with 6 (out of 9) golds, 2 silvers and 3 bronzes.
The country won the senior men, senior women, junior men and mixed relay team golds together with individual golds in senior women and junior men, retaining these titles in the process.
Kenya’s victory in the senior women’s was particularly remarkable. The star-studded side hogged the first five places with Beatrice Chebet successfully defending her title to become the first woman to win back-to-back senior gold since Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba in 2006.
She was followed home by Lilian Kasait , Margaret Chelimo, Emmaculate Anyango and Agnes Jebet, in that order.
It was a joy to see the magnificent and assured red and black cladded Kenya taking the rest of the world to the cleaners.
Truth be told, this cross country business has been Kenya’s property for many, many years.
No country can match our performance in this event that was first held in 1973 in Waregem, Belgium.
Kenya’s John Ngugi was the first athlete to win three senior men’s titles in a row. He actually won four in successive years, from 1986 to 1989.
Kenya was the first country to sweep the senior men’s podium, in 1988, when Ngugi won gold, Paul Kipkoech silver and Kipsubai Koskei bronze. The country repeated the feat in 1993 with William Sigei winning gold, Dominic Kirui silver and Ismael Kirui bronze.
In fact, only Ethiopia has managed to also lock the senior men’s podium spots in the history of the event, and just once, in 2004.
Kenya’s Paul Tergat was the first person to win five senior men’s titles in a row from 1995 to 1999.
Kenya has won an unprecedented 26 of the 45 senior men’s team titles, and all the senior women’s individual titles from 2009 to date i.e. the last nine gold medals. Astounding!
So good were the Kenyans vis-à-vis the rest of the world that World Athletics and others, in their wisdom – unfair if you ask me -- to dilute the dominance, decided to change the frequency of the cross country championships from annual to biennial from 2011.
World Athletics could as well turn the meeting into a quadrennial event but it will never take away the supremacy of Kenyans.
I say, let every Kenyan shout on top of the rooftops – in this case online, that their country is the undisputed world champion in cross country, whatever others will say.
And hey, no brother or sister needs help for saying that.
