Timetable released for World Athletics Championships Budapest 23

The World Athletics Championships Budapest 23 timetable, revealed today (26), features 14 action-packed stadium sessions, to be held from 19-27 August in the Hungarian capital.

Instead of a 10-day programme, as has been the case for the past five senior global championships, the 2023 World Championships schedule spreads the 49 disciplines across nine days of action. The six road events, meanwhile, are spread across five separate days and will all be held in the morning.

All track and field finals will be contested in the evening sessions, with at least four finals scheduled every day, even on the first day. The final two days, meanwhile, have eight medal events each, and both will end with women’s relays. 

Popular doubles such as the 100m & 200m, 800m & 1500m, 1500m & 5000m, 5000m & 10,000m, 20km & 35km race walk, women’s long jump & triple jump, and women’s 200m & 400m are all possible without athletes having to contest more than one round in any given session. And, as has been the case at recent major championships, the mixed and single-sex 4x400m finals are held either side of the individual one-lap disciplines to allow athletes to partake in both relays and individual disciplines should they so desire.

The first evening session will end with the mixed 4x400m final, bringing the opening day to an exciting climax with the only event on the programme in which men and women compete together for medals.

The men’s 100m will be in the spotlight on the second day, while the women’s 100m takes centre stage on day three as athletes compete for the honour of being crowned the world’s fastest sprinter.

The women’s 1500m, always a standout event at recent global championships, will be one of four finals held on day four. The men’s 400m hurdles – another crowd-pleaser – will bring the curtain down on the action on day five.

Both 35km race walk finals will be held on the morning of day six. And there will be no rest on the seventh day, as both 200m finals will crown the evening session.

The women’s marathon kick-starts the penultimate day, which will later include the men’s pole vault and both 4x100m finals. The men’s marathon will be held on the morning of the final day and the championships will end with both 4x400m finals.

Minor adjustments in time may still occur leading up to the championships.

“The release of the timetable is a significant milestone for the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23, now less than a year away,” World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said. “After seeing the extraordinary crowds that descended on Birmingham for the Commonwealth Games and Munich for the European Championships in the last month, we know the appetite for our sport across Europe is as strong as ever and we’re looking forward to taking our premier event to central Europe for the first time.

“Creating the timetable for an outdoor World Championships is a complex balancing act, taking into account the needs of athletes, broadcasters and the host city, as well as our other stakeholders. I’m confident that a return to a nine-day programme and evening-only finals in the stadium will be embraced by our athletes and audience in Budapest, and by those watching around the world.” 

Peter Deutsch, CEO of the local organising committee, added: “We have created a schedule that best serves the interests of the athletes, including Hungarian athletes and the audience. There will be a lot of competitions late in the evening because that will be the right weather for the athletes. Every night there will be great excitement, there will be finals, and every night there will be Hungarians in the field for the home fans to cheer on. Our aim is for the World Championships to strengthen Hungarian athletics, to achieve the best results and to make this wonderful sport as popular as possible.” 

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World Athletics