World Athletics announces new Road World Championships

WA announces 5K to be included in 2023 world half-marathon championships, rebrands it Road Running World Championships

On Tuesday morning, World Athletics announced a new event coming in 2023 – the Road Running World Championships. This new championship will be part of the existing World Athletics Half-Marathon Championships, but will also feature the world 5K championships as a new event, and could potentially include others (like the road mile) in the future.

“Road running has become an increasingly significant part of our sport over the past 20 years and it deserves greater recognition within our World Athletics Series events,” World Athletics CEO Jon Ridgeon said in a press release.

The 2020 World Half-Marathon Championships are scheduled to run October 17 in Poland. While the U.S. and Japan have pulled out of the race, Canada named their team last week. Rachel Cliff is the lone Canadian representative on the women’s side, and on the men’s side, Canada is sending Trevor Hofbauer, Justin Kent, Ben Preisner, Thomas Toth and Phil Parrot-Migas.

Parrot-Migas was a late addition to the team, but last week he successfully appealed Athletics Canada’s initial decision to leave him off the team, meaning he will be running in Poland in three weeks’ time.

World cross-country to move to even years

WA also announced that as of 2024, their cross-country championship will move to even years to align with the Olympics. This is in anticipation of hopefully transitioning cross-country to an Olympic event once again.

posted Saturday October 3rd
by Running Magazine