USATF Names 28-Athlete Roster for World Athletics Cross Country Championships Belgrade 24

Last year’s world championship meet in Bathurst, Australia, was the first since 2019 to see a full American contingent hit the trails, and this year’s squads will be looking to improve on the solid efforts they turned in under difficult conditions Down Under.

Team USATF finished fourth on the 2023 medal table thanks to bronzes earned by the U20 men and U20 women. The team medals were the first ever for the U20 women and the first since 1982 for the U20 men. In senior team competition, the U.S. women placed fifth, with the men nabbing sixth, and the mixed relay was fourth.

The site of the 2013 European Cross Country Championships, Park of Friendship along the Danube River in Belgrade will play host to teams from around the world, with five races on the schedule – senior men’s and senior women’s 10K, Under-20 men’s 8K, Under-20 women’s 6K, and an 8K mixed relay.

Ellie Shea, whose 10th-place effort at Bathurst was the best U20 women’s placing by an American since 1991, returns along with bronze medal teammates Zariel Macchia and Allie Zealand. Macchia won this year’s USATF U20 cross country title by less than a second over Zealand. The lone returnee from the men’s U20 bronze medal team is Kole Mathison. Mathison was second to Kevin Sanchez at the USATF U20 Cross Country Championships.
 
Senior squads are led by Weini Kelati, a dominant women’s winner at the USATF Championships, taking the title by more than 35 seconds, and men’s runner-up Anthony Rotich. Kelati was 21st at Bathurst last year, and Rotich placed 45th in the men’s race. Emmanuel Bor, 31st in 2023, is the highest-placing men’s returnee.

SENIOR WOMEN’S ROSTER

U20 WOMEN’S ROSTER

SENIOR MEN’S ROSTER

U20 MEN’S ROSTER

MIXED RELAY ROSTER

STAFF ROSTER

Source: US Track & Field