Likina Amebaw Wins World Road 5K Less Than One Week After Ultimate Title

Likina Amebaw won the women’s 5K at the World Athletics Road Running Championships in Copenhagen on Saturday in 14:41, and she had it won with a kilometer to go. It was her second global title in six days, after the 5,000m at the Ultimate Championship in Budapest.

The 28-year-old has raced three times in 15 days and two of them were for world titles. She was second over 5,000m behind Freweyni Hailu at the Diamond League final in Brussels on Sept. 4, then won the Ultimate 5,000m in Budapest in 14:30.36 nine days later, with Australia’s Jess Hull second.

She made the race at the 4K marker. Caroline Gitonga had been beside her for most of the second half and finished seven seconds down, and Amebaw was running alone long before she reached Parken.

Three of them had been there that late. Amebaw, Gitonga and Ethiopia’s Aleshign Baweke went through 2K together in about 5:54, by which point Uganda’s Charity Cherop had gone with the early move and lost touch again. Britain’s Megan Keith spent the opening minutes in front, out along Østerbrogade, before Amebaw came up and took the race off her inside the first kilometer. Gitonga led the three past 3K a shade under nine minutes, and with a kilometer to run Baweke had five seconds to find.

The championship record survived. Beatrice Chebet‘s 14:35 from Riga in 2023 is six seconds quicker than Amebaw managed here, and the world record of 13:54 Chebet set in Barcelona on the last day of 2024 is 47 seconds faster again. Gitonga finished second, 14:48. Rose Davies closed harder than anyone else in the chase and took bronze in 14:50, an Oceanian record. South Africa’s Tayla Kavanagh was a second away from it and ran a personal best, 14:51. Baweke held on for fifth, 14:53, and Spain’s Marta García ran the last sub-15 of the afternoon, 14:59 for sixth.

Caroline Nyaga never featured, and on paper she should have. Only three women in history have run a 5K quicker than the 14:19 the Kenyan won with in Tokyo in 2025, and on Saturday she was nearly a minute off it, 13th in 15:17. Diane van Es did not fare much better. The Dutchwoman holds the European record at 14:33 and came 16th in 15:24. Keith, who had done all the early leading, was 15th in 15:19, and Allie Ostrander was the better of the two Americans in 12th, with Courtney Frerichs 17th.

The track has been going well for Amebaw too. Nobody has run a quicker 5,000m this year than her 14:18.41.

“I’m coming straight from Budapest, but the shift from track to road was not really difficult as I have been training both at the same time,” she told World Athletics.

“I knew I had to push from the very start and it worked as planned. There was a little bit of wind, but it was okay and I managed to find some good spots on the course.”

Ethiopia won the mixed team title too, on 55:49. Amebaw and Baweke scored with Addisu Yihune and Mezgebu Sime, 13:07 and 13:08 for sixth and seventh in the men’s race. Australia beat Kenya to silver by a second, 56:30 to 56:31, with Davies and Georgia Griffith joined by Ky Robinson and Toby Gillen. Robinson was fourth in the men’s 5K, the one Eritrea’s Dawit Seare won in 12:56 ahead of Jakob Ingebrigtsen.

Agathe Guillemot and Robert Farken took the road mile titles earlier on Saturday. The half-marathons close the championships on Sunday morning, the women at 9:10 a.m. and the men at 9:45, and Agnes Ngetich goes into the women’s race on a personal best of 1:03:04.

Women’s 5K, Copenhagen 2026: Top 10

1. Likina Amebaw (ETH) 14:41
2. Caroline Gitonga (KEN) 14:48
3. Rose Davies (AUS) 14:50
4. Tayla Kavanagh (RSA) 14:51
5. Aleshign Baweke (ETH) 14:53
6. Marta García (ESP) 14:59
7. Georgia Griffith (AUS) 15:01
8. Samiya Hassan Nour (DJI) 15:04
9. Hannah Gapes (NZL) 15:06
10. Hannah Nuttall (GBR) 15:08