1500m action at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 (© Getty Images)
Four more titles will be decided and a host of qualification action will take place on day five of the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25.
First up on Wednesday (17) is men’s triple jump qualifying and the session will conclude with the men’s 1500m final.
Clash of champions
The past three world champions will clash in the men’s 1500m as Great Britain’s defending champion Josh Kerr takes on his compatriot Jake Wightman, who won in 2022, and the 2019 winner Timothy Cheruiyot of Kenya. But they will face some formidable opposition, in a year that has seen a record 14 men dip under 3:30.
That list includes 20-year-old Dutch athlete Niels Laros, who is unbeaten in the 1500m this year, his wins including at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Brussels and the Diamond League Final in Zurich.
The race will not feature the past two Olympic champions, however, as the Olympic champion from Tokyo in 2021, Jakob Ingebrigtsen, was unable to progress from the heats as he competed for the first time since March, and Paris champion Cole Hocker was disqualified during the semifinals.
Moon defends
Two years on from sharing women’s pole vault gold, USA’s Katie Moon will aim for a second successive title, but her rivals will not include the joint winner last time, Australia’s Nina Kennedy.
Just days before she was due to fly to Japan, Kennedy – who won the Olympic title in Paris last year – announced her withdrawal due to a muscle tear suffered during a final training session.
Her main challengers look to be her compatriot Sandi Morris, who beat her at the US Championships, plus France’s world indoor champion Marie-Julie Bonnin.
Katie Moon at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 (© Getty Images)
Paris medallists resume rivalry
Three of the four fastest women in history will battle for gold in the women’s 3000m steeplechase.
All three won medals at the Paris Olympics - Winfred Yavi of Bahrain getting gold, Uganda’s Peruth Chemutai securing silver, and Kenya’s Faith Cherotich bagging bronze.
Yavi is the defending champion, while Chemutai returns to the track on which she won the Olympic title four years ago.
Tentoglou aims to retain
Two-time Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou will aim to become a two-time world champion when he takes to the men’s long jump runway on day five.
The Greek athlete set the world lead of 8.46m in June but finished sixth in his last competition before Tokyo, jumping 7.66m in a Wanda Diamond League Final won by Switzerland’s Simon Ehammer.
Ehammer, the 2024 world indoor heptathlon champion, clinched the title in Zurich ahead of Italy’s world indoor champion Mattia Furlani and they clash again, joined by Jamaica’s 2019 world champion Tajay Gayle.
Time for the 200m
The 200m sprinters will open their campaigns on day five.
The women’s 200m heats will feature the recently crowned world 100m champion Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, but she won’t face Olympic 100m champion and world 200m leader Julien Alfred, as she injured her hamstring in the 100m final, from which she clinched bronze. Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson, fourth in the 100m final, begins her 200m title defence.
In the men’s 200m heats, USA’s Noah Lyles will start his title defence and he will be joined by the Olympic champion, Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo. Results for the pair were mixed in the 100m as Lyles clinched bronze, while Tebogo was disqualified for a false start. They will be joined by athletes including two-time Olympic silver medallist Kenny Bednarek, who finished fourth in the 100m final on Sunday.
Jess Whittington for World Athletics
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