Canadian Team Competes at World Road Running Championships

Sixteen Canadian athletes are set to compete at the World Athletics Road Running Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark on September 19 and 20. The event will feature 496 elite runners from 85 federations contesting world titles in the mile, 5K, and half-marathon distances.

Copenhagen will crown world champions across three road events. The championships will also include additional races, turning the city into a major celebration of the sport with hundreds of thousands of participants expected.

Canadian Contenders Across the Distances

The Canadian team blends championship veterans with athletes making their senior world championship debuts. The half-marathon squad is particularly strong, featuring Canadian marathon record holders Natasha Wodak and Cam Levins, who holds the men's record of 2:05:36. They are joined by Canadian half-marathon record holder Rory Linkletter (59:49), former 10K national champion Andrew Alexander, 2024 Canadian marathon champion Justin Kent, and new national half-marathon champion Jadyn Keeler.

The 5K team includes world championship veteran Regan Yee, 5,000m finalist Simone Plourde, Samuel Beaudet, and Evan Burke. In the mile, the Stafford sisters will be joined by multiple Canadian record holder Foster Malleck and U23 Canadian 1,500m record holder Max Davies.

Stafford Sisters Target Road Mile

Sisters Gabriela DeBues-Stafford and Lucia Stafford are preparing for their first-ever attempt at the road mile in Copenhagen. Between them, the pair hold Canadian records from 1,000m to 5,000m, but neither has raced the specific mile distance before. They told The Shakeout Podcast that with only 1,609 metres from start to finish, there is little room for technical error.

Their competition includes Ethiopia's Freweyni Hailu, who was second in the mile at the 2023 World Road Running Championships, and Birke Haylom. The field also features Australia's Linden Hall and Sarah Billings alongside other mile specialists.

Global Showdowns in Copenhagen

The men's 5K is shaping up as a headline event, pitting Norwegian Olympic and two-time world 5,000m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen against France's world 10,000m champion Jimmy Gressier. Gressier, 29, ran a 5K personal best of 12:51 in Lille this April and is currently ranked third in the world. He won the 10,000m world title in Tokyo in 2025.

Ingebrigtsen's season started late following Achilles surgery. The 25-year-old returned to win the 5,000m at the European Championships in August, where Gressier finished fourth, and then triumphed at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest last weekend. Copenhagen presents a new challenge, as Ingebrigtsen has only raced one road 5K before, a 13:28 effort in Norway in 2020.

On the women's side, Kenyan Agnes Ngetich arrives with a formidable 2026 resume. The 25-year-old won the world cross-country title by 42 seconds in January and ran a 28:58 10K in Lille, the third-fastest time ever recorded. She also won the 3,000m at the Monaco Diamond League in July and holds the second-fastest women's half-marathon personal best of 1:03:04.

How to Watch the Championships

The 2026 World Athletics Road Running Championships will be streamed live on CBC Sports. The mile event starts at 4 a.m. EDT on September 19, followed by the 5K at 8 a.m. The half-marathon begins at 3 a.m. EDT on September 20.