Long Distance Running News: USATF to supplement prize money for Road Mile, 5 km, Half Marathon Championships in 2025

World Athletics has announced that World Championships for the Road Mile, 5K and Half Marathon will be held annually starting in 2025. Each country can send two athletes per gender in the Mile, two athletes per gender in the 5K and four athletes per gender in the Half Marathon. 
 
The winning bid for 2025, San Diego, will welcome runners from around the globe to the World Road Running Championships as Team USA aims to shine over the weekend of September 26-28, 2025. In 2026, the World Road Running Championships (Road Mile / 5K / Half Marathon) will be in Denmark on September 19. 
 
The USARC task force members as well as the Men's and Women's Long Distance Running Committee members voted unanimously to reallocate the $150,000 in USARC prize money between two categories in 2025: Selection Events prize money and USARC Circuit prize money. USARC aims to recruit robustly and create the best selection events for Team USA World Road Racing Championship Teams with a focus on enticing the best athletes to compete for spots on the World Road Racing Championship Teams in the Road Mile /5K / Half Marathon events.
 
The USATF prize money for 2025 selection events will supplement each selection event’s existing prize money. Prospective hosts will be expected to contribute to the prize money pool in addition to the increased USATF support.

2025 PRIZE MONEY ALLOCATION

• $100,000, split between genders at the three Selection Events, with amounts per place to be determined once the full prize money pool is finalized.
  • 1 Mile: $25,000
  • 5 km: $25,000
  • Half Marathon: $50,000
• $50,000 to Circuit Final Standings ($25,000 per gender)
  • 1st place: $15,000
  • 2nd place: $7,500
  • 3rd place: $2,500

The goal is to have 2025 and 2026 USATF Road Championships and Selection events awarded by October 1 to allow Race Directors, Coaches and Athletes to plan.

To achieve this timeline, bid reviews will begin September 15. Bids received after September15 may not receive full consideration. Moving forward, the LDR Committees aim to be two years ahead with Championship bids.

SELECTION PROCEDURES

*Subject to World Athletics requirements and the full USATF selection procedures which will be posted on the USATF site shortly, below are the outlines of the selection procedure criteria voted on by the LDR Committees which will allow Race Directors, Coaches and Athletes to start planning for the 2025 season. 

1 Mile/5 km Selection criteria

• The top 2 athletes, per gender, will be selected for the team. 
• Should any athlete in the top 2 decline their spot, selection will go down the finish order until 5th place.
• If a full team is not filled by 5th place, selection will move to WA rankings to fill out the remainder of the team.

Half Marathon Selection criteria

• The top 3 athletes, per gender, in the selection event will be selected for the team. 
• Should any athlete in the top 3 decline their spot, selection will go down the WA Rankings to fill the team.
• Additionally, the four-member team will be completed by selecting the remaining athletes based on WA Rankings.

The USATF Long Distance Running Championships bid application document is available here.