Beatrice Chebet successfully defended her 10km senior women’s race title at the 45th edition of the World Cross Country Championships held on Saturday afternoon in Belgrade, Serbia, as Kenyans swept all top five positions.
Chebet, who was in the leading pack from the gun, had to use her experience to outsprint her compatriots, cutting the tape in 31:05, to win gold, 3 seconds ahead of Lillian Kassait, who took silver, while Margaret Chelimo had to settle for bronze in 31:09.
Reigning Sirikwa Classic champion Emmaculate Anyango was relegated to 4th place, while national champion Agnes Jebet, who was leading for the better part of the contest, could only manage a 5th place finish.
It was a different song for the 10km senior men race as Kenya bagged bronze through Benson Kiplangat, clocking 28:14,behind Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo and Berihu Aregawi, who took gold and silver in 28.09 and 28:12, respectively.
Kenya also reigned supreme in the mixed relay, as Reynold Kipkorir,Virginia Nyambura,Kyumbe Munguti, and Purity Chepkurui won gold in 22:15 minutes, while Ethiopia and Great Britain took silver and bronze in that order.
Samuel Kibathi outsprinted Mezgebu Sime from Ethiopia to win the first Kenyan gold medal of the day in the U-20 men’s race, while Matthew Kipruto settled for bronze.
Ethiopia registered a podium clean sweep in the U-20 women’s competition, with Marta Alemayo,Asayech Ayichew, and Robe Dida taking gold, silver, and bronze, respectively.
Sheila Jebet and Diana Cherotich of Kenya finished 4th and 5th, respectively.
Kenya retained the overall title, bagging 6 gold, 2 silver, and 3 bronze medals, followed by Ethiopia with 2 gold, 6 silver, and 2 bronze, while Uganda finished 3rd with 1 gold, 1 silver, and 3 bronze medals.
