World Athletics statement on USATF participation at World Athletics Road Running Championships Copenhagen 26 | News | Copenhagen 26

World Athletics has made the exceptional decision to allow additional female USA Track and Field (USATF) athletes to run at the 2026 World Road Running Championships (WRRC) following the extraordinary nature of an incident at the recent USATF Half-Marathon Championships that acted as a qualifier for the upcoming event in Copenhagen.

World Athletics has agreed on a strictly one-off basis that USATF will be able to select seven athletes rather than the usual four athletes for the women’s half marathon event at the WRRC in September.

An extraordinary set of circumstances at the half marathon championships in Atlanta, Georgia, culminated in the breakaway lead pack of three athletes in the women’s race (Jess McClain, Emma Grace Hurley, Ednah Kurgat) being led off course and finishing outside of the automatic qualifying positions.

In working to find a solution, World Athletics has been sympathetic to the impacted athletes who would otherwise miss out on competing at the WRRC Copenhagen 2026, and understanding of the unprecedented situation USATF – one our leading Member Federations – has found itself in.

USATF will select their four fastest athletes to be their scoring athletes, while non-scoring athletes (meaning they cannot win medals, receive prize money, nor count towards the team result – but will receive world ranking points based on their final finishing position) will take the three additional places. The three non-scoring athletes will wear USA national kit but of a different style to the four scoring athletes.

World Athletics