World’s best runners are set to participate in the upcoming 46th World Athletics Cross Country Championships, which will be held at the County’s Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee, Florida. The event is making its return to the United States after 30 years, since 1992, and is premiering on January 10, 2026.
The event, however, highlights the participation of Indian women runners who will be competing in the cross-country championship in the 2km mixed relay event. The list includes Ankita Dhyani and Pooja Olla. In addition to that, men’s runners, including Gulveer Singh, Sawan Barwal, and Abhishek Pal, are set to take part in the 10km event, while Ajay Kumar Saroj and Yoonus Shah will compete in the 2km Mixed Relay.
A look into Ankita Dhyani’s career
Ankita’s journey from a girl living in the mountains to claim a silver medal in the FISU World University Games 2025 is nothing less than inspiring. Her career achievements began with a gold medal won in the 200m event at the 2018 Youth Nationals. Followed by that in the 2019 and 2020 Khelo India Youth Games, she bagged double gold medals in the 1500m and 5000m events.
At the age of 19, she broke the 23-year-old record in the Junior National 5000m event, in which she finished with a time of 16:21.19. A milestone moment of her career came when she qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics 5000m women’s event. Her latest achievement came when she won the silver medal in the 3000m steeplechase race for the 2025 FISU World University Games.
Ankita’s personal best record in the 5000m is 15:33.03, which she scored at the 2023 Asian Games.
A look into Pooja Olla’s career
A middle-distance runner from Fatehabad, Haryana, Pooja started her sports career in hockey at the age of 14 after taking admission in the Sports Authority of India (SAI) centre in Punjab. It was after that one evening, while randomly running on the tracks, that she caught the attention of Preetipal Kaur, an athletics coach.
Influenced and encouraged by the coach, Pooja took an interest and went on to take part in athletics, starting with the U18 Asian Championship in 2019, in which she won a silver medal. Her career breakthrough came in 2025 when she qualified for the Asian Championship held in South Korea, where she won two medals. She won a silver in the 1500m event with a timing of 4:10.83. Meanwhile, in the 800m, she bagged the bronze with 2:01.89.
Pooja then went on to participate in the Taiwan Open, where she won two golds, one in the 800m and the other in the 1500m category. Her dominant run followed in the National Senior Inter-State Athletics Championships, where she added two more gold medals.
