World Cross Country Championships Belgrade 2024: Preview, schedule, and how to watch live athletics action
Belgrade hosts the championships on Saturday 30 March 2024, with many athletes using the event as a tune-up and chance to experience some needed competition before the 2024 Paris Olympics. Here’s an essential guide to the event from the Serbian capital.
Confirmation that Sifan Hassan, known for her grit and determination on the track and roads, will make her debut at the World Athletics Cross Country Championships at the Belgrade 2024 edition on 30 March has sparked excitement.
The double Olympic champion has decided to run the women's senior (10km) race at the event just 27 days after finishing fourth at the Tokyo Marathon.
Her inclusion in the Dutch team has added depth to an already loaded senior women's field that also includes Kenya’s defending world cross country champion Beatrice Chebet and world 10km record-holder Agnes Ngetich.
But that’s only one of the five events that will be held in Serbia. There will also be the senior men's 10km race, U20 men's 8km, U20 women's 6km, and the mixed 4x2km relay.
Here is our ultimate guide to the key things we think you need to know about the World Cross Country Championships 2024, the schedule, and athletes.
World Cross country, a new challenge for Sifan Hassan
Hassan's athleticism will be on full display in Belgrade, despite her limited training schedule and fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
She's no stranger to the cross-country course, having won the European Cross Country Championships U23 category in 2013, the same year her application for Dutch citizenship was approved.
Since then, the Ethiopia-born runner who moved to the Netherlands as a refugee, has marvelled the world of athletics with her starring performances at distances between 800m to the marathon.
But it’s not lost on the reigning London and Chicago marathon winner, that all her 12 global outdoor and indoor medals, have come from track.
Missing her water bottle and running back to retrieve it at the 25km mark may have cost her third consecutive marathon win in Tokyo recently. But such disappointments have a way of reigniting Hassan.
After failing to replicate her Olympic medal treble from the Tokyo Olympics at the 2023 World Championships, the 31-year-old bounced back to win her second World Marathon Major race title in Chicago.
Returning world cross country champions
The two-time world gold medallist will be up against other formidable athletes led by Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet.
The senior women’s winner from Bathurst is an experienced cross-country runner, having won the U20 crown at the 2019 World Cross Country Championships. The two last raced each other at the 2023 worlds, with Hassan out-sprinting Chebet for the 5000m silver behind the champion Faith Kipyegon.
The senior men’s winners at the last two editions, Jacob Kiplimo and Joshua Cheptegei, lead the Ugandan charge for the 10km title.
Kiplimo won the title in Australia last year where Cheptegei, the world-record-holder over 5000 and 10,000m, took bronze. The latter, the current world record holder for the 5000m and the 10,000m, is just fresh from achieving the Paris Olympic 10,000m qualifying mark. He raced to second place in 26 minutes 53 seconds at a 10km race in Laredo, Spain on 16 March.
Sabastian Sawe, the national cross-country champion, and Ishamel Kipkurui, the gold medallist from the U20 race in Bathurst, are among the six athletes selected to lead Kenya's team in reclaiming the senior men's title, which was last won by the nation in 2017.
Kenyan and Ethiopian runners go in as favourites in both the men’s 8km and women’s 6km U20 races.
Senayet Getachew returns to defend her title.
Keep an eye on the Americans, who won a historic team bronze medal in the women's U20 event last year.
Bronze medallist Ellie Shea, Zariel Macchia, and Allie Zealand, are all back in team U.S.
Schedule of competition of the World Cross Country Championships Belgrade 2024: (all times Belgrade time, CET, UTC+1)
Saturday 30 March
- 11:00 Women U20 race final (6km)
- 11:35 Men U20 race final (8km)
- 12:15 Mixed relay final (4x2km)
- 12:45 Women senior race final (10km)
- 13:30 Men's senior race final (10km)
How to watch World Cross Country Championships Belgrade 2024
World Athletics will stream the World Cross Country Championships Belgrade 24 on their Youtube and on Inside Track, that will be available in most regions around the world (geo-restrictions may apply.)
Several local broadcasters will also show the event live or delayed. find the full list of the local broadcasters here.