The World Athletics Championships always deliver speed, strength, and spectacle. But Tokyo 2025 may carry a deeper drama: the clash of generations.
Some of the sport’s most decorated veterans are arriving with legacies to defend, while a wave of fearless young guns are eager to snatch the spotlight.
In some events, it feels less like a championship and more like a symbolic handover.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce vs The new wave of sprinters
At 38, Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is making what she has confirmed will be her last World Championships.
Already the owner of 10 world titles and two Olympic 100m gold medals, Fraser-Pryce has defined women’s sprinting since Beijing 2008.
Her 100m personal best of 10.60 seconds (Lausanne, 2021) still makes her the third-fastest woman of all time.
World records that could fall at the 2025 World Athletics Championships
Yet around her, younger rivals circle. American Sha’Carri Richardson (25), the reigning 100m world champion from Budapest 2023, is in a peak form.
St Lucia’s Julien Alfred, just 23, has lit up the Diamond League circuit with sub-10.8 runs.
Even in Jamaica, a new generation, led by Shericka Jackson, though at 31 straddles the line between youth and veteran, is hunting Fraser-Pryce’s crown.
For the Jamaican legend, Tokyo is not just another meet; it’s a question of whether she can fend off the next era for one last time.
Faith Kipyegon vs Teenage prodigies
Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon, 31, has rewritten middle-distance history.
Already a double Olympic gold medalist in the 1,500m, she owns the world record at 3:48.68, set in July 2025 in Eugene.
She is chasing a repeat of her Budapest 2023 double, when she won both the 1,500m and 5,000m, a feat no woman had ever accomplished before.
But while Kipyegon’s dominance has seemed untouchable, the track is never still.
Dutch teenager Niels Laros, just 20, has been clocking times once reserved for legends, with a 3:29.20 in the 1,500m already on his résumé.
Ethiopia and Uganda have also unleashed fresh names in the 5,000m, including Phanuel Koech, who broke the world U20 record earlier this season.
Karsten Warholm vs Rai Benjamin and the hurdlers’ wave
Norway’s Karsten Warholm is only 29, but in the brutal world of the 400m hurdles, his legacy already feels secure.
His world record of 45.94 seconds from Tokyo 2021 is considered one of the greatest races in history.
He enters these Championships having also set a world-best in the 300m hurdles (32.67s) earlier this season in Oslo.
Yet Warholm’s reign is constantly under siege. His long-time rival Rai Benjamin (USA) has been running close to his best times for years and is hungry for a breakthrough.
Behind them, a younger wave, led by Brazilian Alison dos Santos, 24, and others in the sub-47s territory, makes this one of the most dangerous events for veterans to protect their turf.
The hurdles are unforgiving. One stumble, one mistimed stride, and youth could upset experience in a blink.
Haruka Kitaguchi vs Rising throwers
On home soil, Japan’s Haruka Kitaguchi embodies the spirit of a veteran under pressure. At 27, she is younger than most in this group, but she carries a nation’s hopes and the weight of history.
Kitaguchi won world javelin gold in Budapest 2023 with a dramatic final-round throw of 66.73m, and followed it with an Olympic gold in Paris 2024, Japan’s first in a throwing event.
She enters Tokyo having thrown 67.04m earlier this year, but also nursing an elbow injury.
Her challengers are younger and fresher: Mackenzie Little of Australia and a new generation of European throwers have been creeping closer to the 66m line.
The clash between veterans and young guns in Tokyo is about more than medals.
It’s about meaning. If Fraser-Pryce wins one last global medal, she extends the arc of greatness beyond what seemed possible.
If Kipyegon repeats her double, she enters a stratosphere of distance running no woman has reached.
If Warholm fends off the pack, he strengthens his claim as the greatest hurdler ever.
If Kitaguchi throws through pain to triumph, she redefines Japanese athletics’ horizons.
But if they fall, the narrative shifts: youth seizing the crown, a visible passing of the torch.
In sprinting, in distance, in hurdles, in throws, Tokyo 2025 is poised to show us whether the old guard can hold their ground, or whether the future has already arrived.
FKA/JE
Meanwhile, watch the post-match conferences of Otto Addo, Tom Saintfiet and highlights of Ghana vs Mali game
