A guide to Saturday’s action in Gdynia, including previews, a timetable and TV info

Major championships action returns in Poland on Saturday (October 17) as some of the globe’s best runners line up in Gdynia for the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships.

It is the first World Athletics Series event to be held since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, with the last global athletics competition having been the World Championships in Doha 12 months ago.

The event will look very different to that which was planned for the original date of March 29. The mass participation race, which had been set to feature 27,000 participants, is now being held as a virtual event, while the elite athletes will race over four loops of an approximately 5.5km course rather than the original single 21.1km loop route.

The finish line is on the main city beach.

World Athletics’ chief executive Jon Ridgeon described it as the most challenging world championships the global governing body has ever organised.

However, he added: “I think it will be a stunning event because the leading athletes have great enthusiasm to compete and there are strong entry numbers.”

READ MORE: Gdynia ready to rise to the challenge

Around 250 runners from more than 50 teams will be competing in the port city on the Baltic coast of northern Poland, including new world 5000m and 10,000m record-holder Joshua Cheptegei, plus world half-marathon record-holders Peres Jepchirchir and Ababel Yeshaneh.

Here we highlight some ones to watch in each race. Entry lists can be found here, while a facts and figures document for the championships is here.

Men’s race

Joshua Cheptegei may be making his half-marathon debut in Gdynia but not many people would bet against him adding another world title to his impressive CV.

The Ugandan 24-year-old won world cross country and 10,000m titles last year and has set world records in each of his three races in 2020.

First he ran 12:51 for 5km on the roads in Monaco in February before he clocked 12:35.36 for 5000m on the track, also in Monaco. Then he smashed the 10,000m mark in Valencia earlier this month with a remarkable 26:11.00. In addition, he holds the world 15km road best.

Joining him on the Uganda team will be world cross country silver medallist Jacob Kiplimo, who has also had a strong summer having won the 5000m in Ostrava in a 12:48.63 PB before clocking a world-leading 3000m PB of 7:26.64 in Rome.

With reigning champion Geoffrey Kamworor unable to race following a car accident earlier this year, world leader Kibiwott Kandie will be among those hoping to keep the title in Kenya.

After running 58:58 in Ras Al-Khaimah in February, Kandie improved his PB to 58:38 in Prague in September, with that time putting him fifth on a world all-time list topped by Kamworor’s 58:01 set in Copenhagen in September 2019.

Guye Adola is among those on the Ethiopian team and will be looking to add to a word half haul which includes bronze from 2014. He’ll be joined by 2:02 marathoner Birhanu Legese.

Other contenders include South Africa’s Stephen Mokoka and Switzerland’s European record-holder Julien Wanders.

Krystian Zalewski and Adam Nowicki are among those racing for the host nation.

Mo Aadan, Tom Evans, Kristian Jones, Jake Smith and Adam Craig feature on the much-changed British team, with European leader Callum Hawkins having withdrawn this month through injury.

British under-23 half-marathon record-holder Smith is the sole remaining member of the original men’s team following the event’s postponement.

Ultra runner Evans, who won world trail bronze for Britain in 2018, told AW earlier this year how being selected to run for GB at the European Cross Country Championships is one of the stand-out moments of his career so far and in Gdynia he will make his international road racing debut.

Women’s race

An extra exciting aspect of the women’s race in Gdynia is that for the first time both current world half-marathon record-holders will clash, with Ethiopia’s Ababel Yeshaneh going up against Kenya’s Peres Jepchirchir.

Yeshaneh broke the world record with 64:31 in a mixed race in Ras Al-Khaimah in February, while 2014 winner Jepchirchir improved the women-only mark to 65:34 in Prague in September.

Previous world record-holders Joyciline Jepkosgei of Kenya (mixed) and Ethiopia’s 2018 winner Netsanet Gudeta (women-only) are also in action.

Rosemary Wanjiru, Dorcas Kimeli and Brillian Kipkoech are also on the Kenya team, while Ethiopia’s entries also include Zeineba Yimer, Yalemzerf Yehualaw, Medhin Beyene, Nigsti Haftu and Sisay Meseret Gol.

Other contenders include Uganda’s Juliet Chekwel, Israel’s Lonah Chemtai Salpeter and Turkey’s Yasemin Can.

Annemari Kiekara returns to race for Finland, with the 43-year-old last having lined up at the event in Uster in 1998.

The host nation team includes Katarzyna Jankowska and Izabela Trzaskalska.

Becky Briggs, Samantha Harrison and Clara Evans race for Britain, with European leader Charlotte Purdue and Steph Davis having been forced to withdraw through injury.

Like Smith on the men’s team, Harrison is the only remaining women’s team member from the initial selection announcement made in March.

Sifan Hassan will not be racing for Netherlands after she announced earlier this week that she would be ending her season earlier than originally planned.

Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and the USA each decided not to send a team to the event.

Timetable

(In local time, with UK time in brackets)

11:00 (10:00): women’s half-marathon

12:30 (11:30): men’s half-marathon

Results will be available here.

TV guide

Fans in the UK will be able to watch the action live on the BBC, while a number of other territories also have TV broadcasts, with full details available here.

Fans from all other territories will be able to watch the below live stream via World Athletics on YouTube from 10:50-14:30 CEST.

AW will also be reporting live on the action, with updates on our social media channels and coverage on our website.