Sparta has been tasked with organising the event in three years’ time after Copenhagen was awarded the hosting rights by the World Athletics Council earlier this month.

The inaugural edition of the World Athletics Road Running Championships, comprising of one mile, five kilometre and half marathon races, is set to be staged in Latvian capital Riga on October 1 this year.

It is due to be held annually from 2025 when San Diego in the United States is poised to play host before the baton is passed to Copenhagen a year later.

The Danish capital is no stranger to hosting major athletics events having held the 2014 World Half Marathon Championships and the 2019 World Athletics Cross-Country Championships.

Since the staging of the World Half Marathon Championships nine years ago, Copenhagen has annually held the "CPH Half".

This year’s event has already sold out with 25,000 people registered to participate in September.

Dorte Vibjerg, chief executive of Sparta, said hosting the 2026 World Athletics Road Running Championships would be the "perfect occasion" to "build another level" to the CPH Half.

"It’s already popular both nationally and internationally but we want to increase the event even more," Vibjerg told insidethegames.

"The World Championships will give us an even better finish area.

"Right now, we are in an area where we cannot increase the maximum level of runners because it’s the same start and finish line.

"But for the World Championships we will place it in the city which will be a new opportunity to make the event even better and more popular than it already is."

As well as managing the CPH Half, Sparta also organises the Copenhagen Marathon, Denmark’s Royal Run - a national running event staged across five cities - and the DHL Relay Race which is set to be held on August 29.

"One of the areas of our bid [for the 2026 World Athletics Road Running Championships] was to give a guarantee that we would have a lot of running," said Vibjerg.

"We are going for 65,000 participants, with 35,000 in the half and the rest in the shorter distances.

"We know that we can do that as we now have a sold out half marathon three months before and we have the 5k relay next week with 135,000 participants.

"We had a sold-out Royal Run in the summer so we know that we can attract that many runners for a Championships.

"What we are seeing is that running is booming.

"When we came out of the coronavirus pandemic, we were on the same level as before but this year we are increasing in the number of participants all over a major events by between 10 and 15 per cent.

"If we look at other European countries, they are not at the same place yet, some of them are still struggling coming back from coronavirus.

"The growth in international participation has also been huge after COVID-19.

"Before coronavirus, we had 35 per cent participation but right now our marathon had 50 per cent foreign runners and that’s the same with the half marathon."

Mikkel Aarø-Hansen, chief executive of Wonderful Copenhagen, said the capital "stands as one of the foremost event cities worldwide".

"We are very excited to welcome athletes and their friends and families to the World Road Running Championships in Copenhagen in 2026," said Aarø-Hansen.

Lars Lundov, chief executive of Sport Event Denmark, added: "It is hard to keep the excitement down right now, as the World Road Running Championships once again are set to be staged in Copenhagen.

"Just as the Tour de France departure last year united and thrilled everyone across the country, I am convinced that the 2026 Championships will create a unique and fantastic celebration as well, whether you are a recreational participant or a spectator."