Five things to watch on day one at WCH Tokyo 25

The 20th edition of the World Athletics Championships kicks off in Tokyo on Saturday (13), 34 years after the city last hosted the event.

There is no shortage of action on day one of the nine-day World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25.

The stars break cover

Day one is the first chance to see some of the sport’s biggest stars, both on track and field.

Noah Lyles has proved he’s no shrinking violet and his quest for another sprint double gets under way in the men’s 100m heats. A raft of athletes will be aiming to dethrone him as world champion, including Kishane Thompson.

And all eyes will be on Mondo Duplantis, who raised the bar yet again to 6.29m, when pole vault qualifying gets going.

First medals of the championships

The first medals will be decided on Saturday morning in the men’s 35km race walk and women’s 35km race walk.

Canada’s Evan Dunfee is the quickest man in the field. He set a world record of 2:21:40 back in March before that mark was eclipsed by Massimo Stano, who had to pull out of the championships with a recurring hamstring injury.

In the women’s event, defending champion Maria Perez of Spain has again set the benchmark in 2025. Her challenge looks likely to spearheaded by Peru’s Kimberly Garcia and Antonella Palmisano of Italy.

Chebet goes for the distance double

The first track medal in Tokyo will be hung around the neck of the winner of the women’s 10,000m, with Beatrice Chebet the clear favourite. 

The Kenyan is attempting the distance double that she achieved at the Paris Olympics, but this time it’s the longer distance around the track first. The last 5000m and 10,000m double achieved at the World Championships was by Mo Farah in 2015.

It looks like Kenya vs Ethiopia on paper for the gold. Chebet is joined by Janeth Chepngetich and Agnes Ngetich, the top two in the trials, while defending champion Gudaf Tsegay heads up an Ethiopian line-up including Ejgayehu Taye, Fotyen Tesfay and Tsigie Gebreselama. 

Crouser the big unknown after injury

The great unknown in the men’s shot put final is whether Ryan Crouser has the fitness and form to continue his dominance.

He has won the past three Olympic titles and is aiming to pull off a similar World Championships hat-trick in Tokyo for what would be his season opener following a nerve entrapment in his throwing elbow which flared up last year.

There is a strong US contingent alongside him with Josh Awotunde, Payton Otterdahl and Adrian Piperi, as well as threats from the likes of Italian Leonard Fabbri, who has the best throw this year of 22.82m. 

Drama looms in mixed relay

This will be the fourth running of the mixed 4x400m relay, which has a propensity to bring chaos at the World Championships and has certainly not lacked in drama during its relatively short stint on the championship schedule.

The USA has been on the podium at all three previous runnings – winning two of them – although the team was topped by the Netherlands at last summer’s Olympics.

Others vying for the podium include Great Britain, Poland, Belgium and Italy.

Matt Majendie for World Athletics

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