The stage will soon be set in Tokyo in nine days. From September 13 to September 21, 2025, the world’s fastest, strongest and most enduring athletes will chase 147 medals across 49 events.
With an $8.5m prize pot on the line, the World Athletics Championships promise the same cocktail of tension and brilliance that captured the world’s attention in Paris just a year ago.
But which contests carry the biggest weight? Which races might define these championships?
Here are the storylines to follow.
Lyles, Thompson and the 100m sprint drama
The men’s 100m is always theatre. Noah Lyles, the showman of American sprinting, is chasing a third global crown.
His Olympic triumph in Paris was razor-thin, just five-thousandths of a second separated him from Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson in the fastest race in history.
2025 World Athletics Championships: The legends, rising threats, and battles fans will see in Tokyo
But in 2025, Lyles does not arrive as the man to beat. Thompson owns this year’s quickest time, 9.75, while compatriot Oblique Seville beat Lyles comfortably just weeks ago.
Then there is the wildcard: Australian teenager Gout Gout, hailed as the closest thing to Usain Bolt.
Britain’s Zharnel Hughes, already a world bronze medalist, also has his eyes on another podium finish.
Kerr, Ingebrigtsen and the 1500m chess match
Middle distance fans will circle the men’s 1500m in red. Britain’s Josh Kerr, world champion in 2023, and Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the Olympic champion from 2021, have exchanged blows for years.
Their duels are box-office. But at the Olympics in Paris, a new character crashed the script: Cole Hocker of the USA, surged past Kerr to claim gold in record time.
With Ingebrigtsen’s year disrupted by injury and other rivals fading, Tokyo might produce another surprise in a race that rarely goes to plan.
Hodgkinson and the battle of the 800m
Few races stir as much intrigue as the women’s 800m. For Great Britain, the spotlight falls on Keely Hodgkinson, who finally gets her first crack at a major championship as an Olympic champion.
Her story is one of resilience: sidelined for a year with torn hamstrings, she returned only last month, yet immediately clocked the fastest time in the world this season.
She won’t be alone. Georgia Hunter Bell, who won Olympic bronze in 1500m, has dropped down in distance to sharpen her medal chances.
Jemma Reekie, another familiar British name, joins the charge. Yet across the track, danger lurks.
Mary Moraa, Kenya’s defending champion, Ethiopia’s Tsige Duguma and Switzerland’s rising star Audrey Werro all stand ready to spoil the party.
Alfred vs Richardson: Women’s 100m fireworks
On the women’s side, the 100m promises fireworks of its own. St Lucia’s Julien Alfred, Olympic champion, is chasing a sprint double.
Her fiercest rival could be American Sha’Carri Richardson, the reigning world champion, who claimed silver in Paris.
Yet the form book belongs to Melissa Jefferson-Wooden. With a best of 10.65 this season, the American has run five of the six fastest times of the year.
Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith, Daryll Neita, and Amy Hunt will try to muscle into the medal picture, while Jamaica’s legendary Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, at her final global championships, seeks one last moment of glory.
Johnson-Thompson vs Thiam: Queens of the Heptathlon
The women’s heptathlon brings its own heavyweight clash.
Katarina Johnson-Thompson, finally an Olympic medalist in Paris, renews her rivalry with Belgium’s Nafi Thiam, a three-time Olympic champion.
Between them, they have shared four of the last five world titles, trading victories like tennis greats.
Their most recent meeting, in Paris, came down to a frantic final 800m, with Thiam snatching gold by just 36 points.
In Tokyo, the pair meet again in the same stadium where Johnson-Thompson’s Olympic dream was once shattered by injury.
Hudson-Smith’s last step to gold
For Britain’s Matthew Hudson-Smith, the men’s 400m has become a cruel story of near-misses.
He was fourth in Budapest, then at Paris 2024 he lost Olympic gold to America’s Quincy Hall by four hundredths of a second.
Yet his personal best of 43.44 seconds makes him the fifth-fastest man in history, proof that his moment could still come.
His season’s best is slower than three men, including Jacory Patterson, America’s Diamond League champion, but Hudson-Smith remains a genuine contender.
Britain will also watch Charlie Dobson, who shocked many with his victory at the London Diamond League this summer.
Tokyo, then, will not just be about medals. It will be about redemption arcs, old rivalries, new stars and the thin line between heartbreak and triumph.
The stadium lights will shine, the gun will fire, and the world will watch, waiting to see whose story endures.
FKA/JE
Meanwhile, watch the post-match conferences of Otto Addo, Tom Saintfiet and highlights of Ghana vs Mali game
