COPENHAGEN, Denmark - 2019 Centre graduate Annie Rodenfels is headed to the 2026 World Road Running Championships in Copenhagen.

Rodenfels earned a spot in the championships following the 2026 USATF Half Marathon Championships held March 1 in Atlanta. Rodenfels, making her half-marathon debut, finished third in the race, which was marred after the three leading runners were mistakenly directed off-course by the lead vehicle. By the time those three runners backtracked to the official course, they finished down the leaderboard.

On Wednesday, after an extended delay while considering the "extraordinary nature" of the incident, World Athletics made the decision to allow the U.S. to bring seven athletes to worlds.

"World Athletics has agreed on a strictly one-off basis that USATF will be able to select seven athletes rather than the usual four athletes for the women's half marathon event at the WRRC in September," the organization announced.

Rodenfels shared the news on her Instagram feed Wednesday, posting "We're going to worlds, baby! Couldn't be prouder to share a staring line with all of these women in September."

To keep the championships fair for other runners, the U.S. team will designate four competitors to be its scoring athletes, with their finish counting toward the team total. The non-scoring runners cannot win medals, receive prize money, nor count toward the team result, but will receive world ranking points based on their final finishing position.

All the runners will be full team members, USATF announced it will cover all expenses associated with the additional entries and, should any non-scoring athletes finish in a prize-eligible position, USATF will also provide the corresponding prize money.

Rodenfels was a three-time national champion during her career at Centre, and is a professional runner with Team Meridia and sponsored by Salomon shoes. She won the 2024 Women's six-kilometer National Championship and has claimed back-to-back national five-kilometer championships in 2023 and 2024.