Ebba Tulu Chala and Evelina Henriksson dominated the opposition over the classic 30km distance at the 2026 TCS Lidingöloppet, a World Athletics Cross Country Tour Silver event, on Saturday (26) afternoon.
Tulu Chala won the men’s race by more than two minutes while Henriksson claimed the women’s title by almost three minutes to complete the second-half of a Swedish double in the blue riband event.
Tulu Chala took control of the classic 30km race almost from the start and never looked back. His lead continued to grow throughout the race, and the bigger the gap became to his closest rivals, the broader the smile on Tulu Chala’s face.
He crossed the finish line in 1:38:50, more than two minutes ahead of former Swedish marathon record-holder David Nilsson in 1:40:55. Last year's winner William Morwabe from Kenya finished third in 1:41:06.
It was Tulu Chala’s second victory over the 30km distance at Lidingöloppet, having previously won the race in 2024.
“It was a bit windy, cold and slippery, and I had to run on my own, but my body felt good. I’m in good shape and I felt like I had it under control all the way,” said Tulu Chala who recently finished 13th in the marathon at the 2026 European Athletics Championships in Birmingham.
Henriksson completes a Swedish 30km double
The winning margin was even bigger in the women’s race. After finishing third in each of the previous two editions, Henriksson finally reached the top step of the podium, beating four-time winner Sylvia Medugu by 2:58.
Henriksson, who won the Nordic cross country title last year and has competed at the last two editions of the SPAR European Cross Country Championships, won in 1:53:28 ahead of Medugu (1:56:26) with 46-year-old marathon veteran Hanna Lindholm third (1:56:53).
"The race went better than I expected. In previous years, the first 10 kilometres have felt really tough, so I was expecting the same this time. But today it felt very easy all the way and everything just flowed," said Henriksson.
The 15km victories both went to Burundi with pre-race favourites Egide Ntakarutimana and Francine Niyomukunzi winning in 44:36 and 51:25 respectively.