Online Reporter
THIS year’s World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 serve as the season finale to an exciting season of track and field.
Tokyo 25 is the milestone 20th World Athletics Championships since track and field’s first-ever world championships were held in Helsinki in 1983, and the first time the Japanese capital has hosted since welcoming the third World Championships in 1991.
It’s the first time the global showpiece has wrapped up the outdoor season, and brings with it a number of intriguing storylines after a long season in which there was also a World Athletics Indoor Championships back in March.
From world record watches to eagerly awaited rematches, event switches to comeback and farewell stories, Olympics.com picks out six of the best match-ups we’re looking forward to at the Japan National Stadium from 13–21 September.
Men’s sprints: Noah Lyles vs the field
US star Noah Lyles is the defending world champion in both the 100m and the 200m events, the latter being his preferred distance. The Olympic champion over the shorter sprint, however, hasn’t won a 100m final yet this season.
Lyles will face a strong field of challengers having already lost to two of them this year, Jamaicans Kishane Thompson — who Lyles edged out by just five-thousandths of a season to win Olympic gold in Paris last year — at the Silesia Diamond League, and Oblique Seville (in London and Lausanne), and has only gone under 10 seconds in one of his four races.
The 28-year-old will likely take more confidence going into the 200m, where his biggest match-up would seem to be against Letsile Tebogo, the Olympic champion.
Women’s 100m: Julien Alfred vs Jamaica vs USA
The women’s sprints are packed full of storylines, but none more so than in the 100m. Olympic champion Julien Alfred will go up against reigning world champion Sha’Carri Richardson once more, but that’s only the start of the intrigue.
Of course, Richardson’s teammate Melissa Jefferson-Wooden will also be in the mix (just as she will in the 200m, too) — but the Jamaicans are another factor to consider.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the third-fastest woman ever over 100m, is competing in her swan song.
And there’s also Shericka Jackson, who also pulled out in Paris last year over the 200m.
Men’s 400m hurdles: Karsten Warholm vs Alison dos Santos and Rai Benjamin
Karsten Warholm is the world record holder and defending world champion over 400m hurdles — but last summer in Paris, he was beaten.
The first and only man in history to go under 46 seconds, Warholm did not have a good season last year, losing three times. However, if 2025 is anything to go by, the Norwegian is back to his best.
Aside from a blip at the Stockholm Diamond League, where he finished third behind both Olympic champion Rai Benjamin of the USA and Brazil’s Alison dos Santos — the two men who have challenged him and kept pace with Warholm even as the Norwegian pushed all the norms about what was possible over the 400m hurdles — the 29-year-old has enjoyed a successful year.
Women’s high jump: Yaroslava Mahuchikh vs Nicola Olyslagers
Competition has been fierce this season in the women’s high jump, and you can thank Nicola Olyslagers and Yaroslava Mahuchikh for that.
Mahuchikh is the reigning world and Olympic champion, and last year cleared a remarkable 2.10m to set a new world record in the event.
Men’s 1500m: Jakob Ingebrigtsen vs injury (and the field)
Since winning Olympic gold in 2021 in the same stadium in Tokyo, Jakob Ingebrigtsen has had a tough time of it in major 1500m finals.
But this year, the 24-year-old has an added complication: he is coming off an Achilles injury suffered in May which means the World Athletics Championships will be his outdoor season debut — if he is fit.
That’s even before considering the likes of Yared Nuguse, last year’s Olympic bronze medallist Niels Laros, former world champion Timothy Cheruiyot, and Azeddine Habz of France, who won two 1500m races at Diamond League meets this year.
Women’s 400m: Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone vs the Olympic gold and silver medallists
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is a history-maker as the first (and one of only two) women to go under 51 seconds over the women’s 400m hurdles.
But this year, the 26-year-old decided to focus on something she’s wanted to do for years, and would have run at the 2023 World Championships before withdrawing through injury: the women’s 400m flat.
That pits her up against both the reigning Olympic champion, Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic, and former world champion and current Olympic silver medallist Salwa Eid Naser of Bahrain.
They also happen to hold the three fastest times this year between them: 48.67 for Naser, 48.81 for Paulino, and 48.90 for McLaughlin-Levrone. – Olympics.com
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