A total of 453 elite runners from 50 nations will converge in Bathurst, Australia for the 44th edition of the World Athletics Cross country championship on Saturday.

More than 230 athletes (134 men, 102 women) are entered for the individual senior races, while more than 150 (81 men, 73 women) will be in action in the Under- 20 races. A total of 15 teams have been entered for the mixed relay.

The senior men’s podium finishers from the last edition in Aarhus in 2019 will clash again as defending champion Joshua Cheptegei and fellow Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo take on two-time winner Geoffrey Kamworor.

World’s 10,000m champion Letesenbet Gidey, a two-time winner of the U20 title, will seek to earn her first senior world cross-country title in the women’s race. Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet and Eritrea’s Rahel Daniel are expected to provide tough opposition. World U20 champions Medina Eisa of Ethiopia, Faith Cherotich and Reynold Cheruiyot of Kenya will all feature in the U20 races.

Ethiopia will defend their title in the mixed relay, helped by World and Olympic steeplechase finalist Getnet Wale.

Steeplechase world record-holder Beatrice Chepkoech features on a strong Kenyan team, while host nation Australia also has a formidable quartet, which includes the likes of Ollie Hoare, Stewart McSweyn and Jess Hull. Kenya will be hoping to wrestle the overall team title from Uganda and

Ethiopia who won the men’s and women’s senior titles while at an

individual level, the women will hope to defend the title won in 2019

by Hellen Obiri (senior) and Beatrice Chebet (junior) in Denmark.

The men’s title was won by Joshua Cheptegei with Jacob Kiplimo taking

silver while 2015 and 2017 winner Geoffrey Kamworor placed third. The

junior title was won by Ethiopia’s Milkesa Mengesha ahead of Tadase

Worku and Uganda’s Oscar Chelimo.Athletics Kenya national head coach Julius Kirwa said an advance party has already arrived in Australia to assess the course and weather conditions and avoid a repeat of the fiasco that befell the team during the previous edition in Aarhus Denmark.

“We are getting daily updates on the weather conditions and the course to ensure we are not caught by surprise. We want to pay attention to details, which is very important,” Kirwa said.

Kirwa added that he expects a stern test from perennial rivals Ethiopia, Uganda and Eritrea in the one-day championships, insisting that Team Kenya cannot rest on their laurels now that there are other emerging nations in athletics.