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Ben Ashkettle Was Nearly Two Decades Removed From His First World Cross Country Race. This Is Why He Raced Again At 37.
- Cory Mull
- Jan 17
- 4 min read
The Fiji athlete, who had retired twice previously, had some personal motivation to get back on the course in Tallahassee
Benjamin Ashkettle was only 18 years old when he first appeared in the under-20 race at the World Cross Country Championships in Mombasa, Kenya nearly two decades ago.
A lot of things looked different then.
For one, Ashkettle was representing Australia and not New Zealand or Fiji. World Athletics was still known as the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF). And Seb Coe, the British middle distance legend who secured London the Olympic bid in 2005, was still eight years out from becoming the president of World Athletics (though he was elected as vice president in 2007).
Nearly 20 years later, though, promptly after finishing fourth from last in his third global cross country championship and now representing the small South Pacific island nation of Fiji, the 37-year-old Ashkettle was perfectly aware of his standing.
He even joked about it.
“I was actually significantly faster (10 years ago),” he said.
But in other ways, you had to hand it to him.
On race day, he was the second-oldest male and the fourth-oldest competitor overall -- Honduras’ Iván Zarco, who finished 16 seconds ahead of Ashkettle, was the oldest at 41.
Traversing a hot day against the fastest cross-country runners in the world, and in front of roughly 10,000 fans at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee, Florida -- a few years removed from his own racing retirement -- he got it done, finishing in 37 minutes and seven seconds.
Behind Ben Ashkettle’s Race at World Cross Country
Ashkettle's performance in Florida was nowhere near his lifetime 10,000-meter best of 28:52 from 2010 when he was fresh out of Northern Arizona University and rolling on the track. Or during his best years representing New Zealand at the senior level (the country he featured for following his under-20 exploits).
But after two hernia repairs and two quasi-retirements, it showed exactly what this race meant to him.
“I had to be there,” said Ashkettle, who lived in Tallahassee for a year in the mid 2010s with his partner, Australia’s Linden Hall.
In fact, it was probably Hall who spurred Ashkettle the most. The 34-year-old three-time Olympian won gold in the mixed relay on January 10th along with teammates Oliver Hoare, Jack Anstey and Jessica Hull.
And there were larger motivations for Hall, too: Tallahassee was her previous home from 2011-2014 when she was with the Seminoles.
Ashkettle and Hall now live together in Melbourne, Australia. Naturally, they held a similar sense of pride for a city that once shaped them. In fact, it may have been Hall's nudging that prompted Ashkettle to secure an individual place with Fiji.
“Originally, I was going to come as the team manager,” said Ashkettle, who ended up handling all the country’s administrative duties for the race. Later, he changed his mind and “decided I’ll jump in and run.” Ashkettle’s countryman, the 24-year-old Yeshnil Karan, was the first finisher across the line for Fiji in 83rd.
“I told myself, ‘I’m 37 years old,’” Ashkettle said afterward. “It didn’t matter where I finished as long as I got to represent Fiji with some pride.”
Ben Ashkettle’s Switch to Fiji
An accomplished former steeplechase athlete, half marathoner and marathoner who attended NAU in the late 2000s before the Arizona-based men's cross country program blossomed in the next decade as one of the best of all-time, Ashkettle ran at the senior level for New Zealand before he reclassified to Fiji in 2019 after missing the Olympics in 2016 and the Commonwealth Games in 2018.
That move was partially made, he said, because the New Zealand delegation gave him and other runners an impossible target. In 2014, he represented New Zealand at the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships in Denmark, finishing in 1:06:39. That same year, he ran his marathon PR of 2:19, a time that met the Olympic standard and was second-best for New Zealand over the cycle.
But then came the baddest of beats.
“They dropped a little bit of a blow on me and a couple other people trying to make it and told us that we needed to run eight minutes under the Olympic standard,” said Ashkettle, who was born in New Zealand but grew up in Melbourne, Australia. “That was a time we just couldn’t do.”
More bad news came from New Zealand decision-makers before the Commonwealth Games in 2018, so Ashkettle made the decision to reclassify and represent his mother’s home country.
The move to Fiji, however, did open some doors.
Ashkettle ran a national record for the country in 2019 at the Gold Coast Half Marathon in 1:07:31. Then, after retiring for a few years, he returned to the global stage to represent the country at the World Cross Country Championships in Bathurst, Australia in 2023.
This Fiji Athlete Looks Ahead
In more recent years, Ashkettle has made more of a concerted effort to elevate running in Fiji. “It’s really invigorated my love for the sport again,” he said.
In the meantime, he and Hall have worked with a few organizations to provide running shoes to children and young athletes on the island. His appearance at the World Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee was a reminder of that work.
In a lot of ways, he said, it was about inspiring a young person on the island to think bigger.
"We're just trying to encourage people back home and make them realize that, you know, they can get out there and see the world with running," Ashkettle said, "whether that means you end up winning or coming in last."
So what’s next?
The 37-year-old may be done with competitive racing yet again. His third retirement may be incoming.
But on second thought, maybe not.
As a native Kiwi, a long-time Aussie, and now an adopted Fijian, can-do spirit is a part of Ashkettle's DNA.
“We’re really known for our smile and our happiness,” he said.
