The Kenya mixed relay team ran away with gold with a dominant display at the World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Belgrade, Serbia on Saturday, March 30, 2024.

The gold comes seven years after the country won the inaugural mixed relay.

Meanwhile, Kenya’s lead grew with each lap and they eventually won by 28 seconds beating Ethiopia, the bronze medal went to Great Britain Northern Ireland.

Reynold Cheruiyot led most of the lap with Hosea Kiprop of Uganda relentlessly pushing in the first half of the circuit. Cheruiyot, the U20 1500m champion, kept on to outclass his rival.

Morocco’s Hafid Rizqy and Ethiopia’s Taresa Tolosa were close behind Cheruiyot, while Serbia’s Elzan Bibic was also in contention.

With jubilation from the home crowd, Bibic managed to briefly go second, but Ethiopia’s Tolosa then came through in the closing stages and handed over almost level with Cheruiyot.

In the second leg, Virginia Nyambura took up the running and the African cross-country silver medallist maintained a lead of about five metres over Ethiopia’s Dahdi Dube. Dube and Nyambura carved out a 17-second lead over the rest of the field.

Kenya's dominance

The Kenyan reached the end of the second leg at 11:43 as Kenya held a one-second lead over Ethiopia. At that point, Ella Donaghu had moved the USA up into third place.

Kyumbe Munguti took over and ensured the strong performance continued as they opened a good lead. Ethiopia’s Adehana Kasaye ran a decent leg to maintain second place, but as he entered the exchange zone to hand over to teammate Birri Abera, Kasaye stepped on Abera’s foot, causing the anchor leg runner’s shoe to come off.

The anchor leg for Kenya was run by Purity Chepkirui and as Ethiopia struggled after the shoe mishap, Kenya enjoyed a 20-second lead for Kenya which was extended to the final leg.

The 2021 world U20 1500m champion was firmly in charge and went on to cross the line in 22:15 to secure gold for Kenya. Abera came second in 22:43, while Bethan Morley ran a strong final leg to earn bronze for Great Britain Northern Ireland.

This was Great Britain Northern Ireland's first senior medal at the World Cross in 20 years.

Morocco came fourth in 23:08 as they finished just ahead of Uganda (23:10) and France (23:17).