From Riga to Copenhagen – Rimi Riga Marathon Team at the World Athletics Road Running Championships!
30 September 2026In September, the Rimi Riga Marathon team travelled to Copenhagen to experience the second World Athletics Road Running Championships firsthand. Remember that three years ago, we launched this new world championship tradition right here in Riga?!
In Copenhagen, we saw how the idea of a World Championship where everyday runners can take on the mile, 5K and half marathon alongside superstars from around the world continues to grow and evolve!
From Riga to Copenhagen!
In October 2023, Riga became the host city of the first World Athletics Road Running Championships, bringing together runners from more than 100 countries. Copenhagen continued the successful story of the World Championships – on 19 and 20 September 2026, the streets of the Danish capital welcomed both elite athletes representing national teams from around the world and nearly 60,000 everyday runners taking part in the championship races.
Three distances, six world champion titles, tens of thousands of runners!
Riga’s records remain unbeaten!
While we were cheering for the success of the world’s superstars, we were also quietly celebrating the fact that the women’s mile world record set in Riga in 2023 by Diribe Welteji – 4:20.98, right here on our DPD Mile course – remained unbeaten!
In other words, even after the Copenhagen Championships, Riga’s record continues to stand at the very top of the world’s road running record books!
Riga 2023 · Mile world record
And although a new women’s half marathon world record was set in Copenhagen by Kenyan runner Agnes Jebet Ngetich – 1:05:15 – in a women-only race – it was still slower than Ejgayehu Taye’s 1:04:22, recorded at this year’s Rimi Riga Marathon 21K.
Taye’s result became a new Rimi Riga Marathon course record and remains the third-fastest women’s half marathon time in the world this year! Once again, this proves that the Rimi Riga Marathon courses are perfectly suited for outstanding performances and personal bests!
Experience sharing and new ideas
As you can imagine, the trip to Copenhagen was about much more for the Rimi Riga Marathon team than simply watching the world’s best runners.
First and foremost, it was an important opportunity for experience sharing – including the chance to “shadow” the Copenhagen team and gather ideas for future Rimi Riga Marathons. Three years after the historic 2023 Championships in Riga, it was especially exciting to see how the story that began there continues in another European capital with a deeply rooted running culture.
Bringing elite sport and mass participation running together, building an international running community, engaging the city, and making a world-class sporting event accessible to everyone – these are some of the key questions occupying the minds of event organisers.
Secondly, we took part in the Global Running Conference, where we had the opportunity to meet organisers of other world-class running events, learn about their approaches and share our own experience in creating major international sporting events. Major running events – from Riga to Copenhagen – are important platforms for raising a city’s international profile and promoting tourism, while also engaging local communities and encouraging movement and the development of running culture.
Thirdly, we took part in the Copenhagen EXPO, with the goal of attracting marathon tourists to Riga! We hope that already in 2027, we will see an unprecedented influx of international runners and visitors to Riga!
The Mile, 5K and Half Marathon – we ran them all!
We ran too! Rebeka took on the half marathon as a warm-up for her first marathon in Berlin! Valda ran the half marathon and set a personal best! Aigars went for the full challenge, completing the mile, 5K and half marathon!
And, of course, we were especially excited to see our very own Artūrs Niklāvs Medveds take on the 5K. He finished in 19th place with a time of 13:30, breaking the Latvian national record by 10 seconds! We are already looking forward to seeing him race in Riga again in 2027! Earlier this year, he showed his class at the Rimi Riga Marathon in the mile, winning the race and setting a new Latvian record with a time of 4:09.4.
