It’s been a while since we last spent time crunching World Athletics scoring tables, deciphering world rankings, and scouring the web for obscure national championship results, but it’s time to do it all over again in 2025.

For the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo, World Athletics has quickened the qualifying standard for the women’s 10,000m from 30:40.00 to 30:20.00 while keeping the men’s mark at 27:00.00. This is all part of World Athletics' hopes of having half the field qualified via World Rankings and half via the qualifying standard.

Here’s what our very own Preet Majithia noted back in November when analyzing the standards: “Only nine women would have been able to qualify via the new standard of 30:20 if this had been the qualifying standard for the Olympics – three Kenyans, three Ethiopians and then Sifan Hassan, Alicia Monson and Eilish McColgan. This new women’s standard is certainly much trickier, so world rankings are more likely to come into play, unless we get another significant super shoe-driven drop in times.”

We’re going to dive into all the numbers and how tricky things are now…

– The targeted field size for the 10,000m is 27 athletes.

– 22 women in the world have run under the 30:20 qualifying standard within the qualifying window. One of them is Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay, who also automatically gets a spot as the reigning World champion.

– The other 21 women are Kenyan or Ethiopian but each country will only be able to name three athletes each for Worlds. Here are the qualifiers:

– Kenya: Beatrice Chebet, Lilian Kasait Rengeruk, Margaret Kipkemboi, Janeth Chepngetich, Catherine Reliene Amanang’ole, Hellen Ekale Lobun, Diana Chepkorir, Christine Chepkorir, Loice Chemnung, Agnes Ngetich, Cintia Chepngeno

– Ethiopia: Foyten Tesfay, Tsigie Gebreselama, Ejgayehu Taye, Ayandis Mebratu, Medina Eisa, Girmawit Gebrzihair, Likina Amebaw, Asayech Ayichew, Fantaye Belayneh, Wale Kefale

Ethiopia and Kenya will likely select their team like they have in years past, based on the results of a trials race and/or discretionary spots picked by selectors.

– Kazakhstan's Daisy Jepkemei, Olympic silver medalist Nadia Battocletti of Italy and Burundi’s Francine Niyomukunzi have the three cross country qualifier spots based off their world cross country ranking. It is up to the athletes or their federations to choose to accept or decline the invitation.

As of March 30, here is how the rest of the world ranking spots are currently allocated:

USA (3 spots): Weini Kelati (11th), Karissa Schweizer (13th), Parker Valby (16th)

Great Britain (3 spots): Megan Keith (12th), Eilish McColgan (24th). Jessica Warner-Judd (26th)

Japan (3 spots): Rino Goshima (19th), Haruka Kokai (21st), Miyaka Sugata (25th)

Italy (2 more spots after Battocletti): Federica Del Buono (20th) and Elisa Palmero (24rd)

Netherlands (1 spot): Diane Van Es (14th)

Australia (1 spot): Lauren Ryan (15th)

Uganda (1 spot): Sarah Chelangat (17th)

Slovenia (1 spot): Klara Lukan (18th)

South Africa (1 spot): Glenrose Xaba (22nd)

The Road to Tokyo currently shows Peru’s Luz Mery Rojas is provisionally qualified as the South American champion. She has not run a 10,000m on the track since 2023 and owns a personal best of 33:07.74 from June 2023. She was 62nd in the marathon at the Paris Olympics. The current rules allow area champions to qualify if there's no one else from your region qualified. If someone else from South America qualifies, she'll be out. If Rojas opts to not run the 10,000m in Tokyo, another rankings spot opens back up.

Let’s Talk About The Americans And The Ten

On the women’s side at Sound Running’s The Ten, no women ran under the 30:20 qualifying standard for the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo. As of right now, no American women have run under the 2025 standard since it opened on Feb. 25, 2024. The window will remain open until Aug. 24.

Currently, Weini Kelati (11th), Karissa Schweizer (13th), Parker Valby (16th), Amanda Vestri and Jessica McClain are in the World Rankings quota. Valby and Schweizer did not race at The Ten.

So let’s take a look at the notable results of The Ten (a World Athletics category B meet with good placing points) and how it may or may not have affected the World Rankings quota.

As a brief refresher, every performance gets a score from World Athletics based on their finishing time, place and the caliber of meet. For the 10,000m, an athlete's top two scores are averaged together for their World Ranking score.

1st place – Elise Cranny, 30:36.56 = 1274 points (1214 performance points + 60 place points)

Elise Cranny does not appear in the Road to Tokyo list of qualifiers because she has only run one 10,000m race in the qualifying window. Unless she runs another 10,000m race (might be difficult to fit into her schedule since she is committed to Grand Slam Track as a Racer through June), she’ll likely be relying on a mark from U.S. Outdoor Track and Field Championships – if she chooses to race the event there from July 31st - Aug. 3rd. Cranny is the 2023 U.S. champion at 10,000m, but in 2024 she contested the 5000m and 1500m at the Olympic Trials.

2nd place – Weini Kelati, 30:38.60 = 1262 points (1212 performance points + 50 place points)

Weini Kelati remains the highest-ranked American woman and proved that, even with a few half marathons on her legs, she can still accelerate and hang with a middle distance expert like Cranny, but this weekend’s run won’t replace her 30:49.98, 8th place finish at the Olympics (1347 points) or last year’s 30:33.82 runner-up finish at The Ten (1266 points).

3rd place – Calli Hauger-Thackery, 30:53.73 = 1243 points (1198 performance points + 45 place points)

Much like Cranny, Calli Hauger-Thackery will need a second 10,000m performance to enter the Road to Tokyo picture. She’s running the Boston Marathon in April and, once recovered, her best shot to qualify involves jumping either McColgan or Warner-Judd in the rankings – if she wants to race the 10,000m at the World Championships in Tokyo while maybe also pursuing a fall marathon. Warner-Judd is currently recovering from an epilepsy diagnosis, but wants to have one more track season. Top-ranked Brit Megan Keith is also coming back from injury. And then there’s the added wrinkle that UK Athletics historically has often found a way to mess things up.

Relevant side note: Eilish McColgan, who is getting ready for her debut at the London Marathon, recorded a 10K performance this weekend at the McKirdy Micro 10K (World Athletics certified and Category F) in Rockland State Park in New York. She ran 31:03, which is worth 1195 points (1190 performance points + 5 place points). It replaces her 31:52 win (1146 points) at the Hypotheek Stadsloop Appingedam event in the Netherlands last June as he second-best performance in the qualifying window. She thus improves her ranking score from 1185 to 1209.5.

4th place – Taylor Roe, 30:58.66 = 1234 points (1194 performance points + 40 place points)

Taylor Roe told the CITIUS MAG Podcast that she’s planning to pursue a summer track season. She needs one more 10,000m performance to factor into the Road To Tokyo. At The Ten, she took over a minute off her previous personal best. She’ll already be assured of a spot on Team USA via the 2025 World Road Running Championships team as the U.S. Half Marathon champion. Roe did not contest the 10,000m at last year’s U.S. Olympic Trials (instead only ran the 5000m and finished 8th) but was third at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

5th place – Lauren Ryan, 30:58.69 = 1229 points (1194 performance points + 35 place points)

Lauren Ryan remains in the World Rankings quota. Although she ran faster than her 31:13.25, 13th place finish at the Olympics (1241 points), Saturday’s performance was not worth more points overall and did not improve her standing.

6th place – Emily Infeld, 30:59.38 = 1223 points (1193 performance points + 30 place points)

Eight days after turning 35, Emily Infeld took down her lifetime best in the event from 2021. She will need another 10,000m performance to enter the Road To Tokyo Rankings. It’s a great starting point for a shot at the World Rankings quota.

7th place – Jessica McClain, 30:59.71 = 1218 points (1193 performance points + 25 place points)

Jess McClain entered as No. 5 on the U.S. rankings and clocked about a 36-second personal best to boost her spot in the next edition of the rankings. With this being her best points performance, she’ll improve her Ranking Score to 1212, which moves her ahead of Amanda Vestri and only behind the three American women who represented Team USA at the Games. Unfortunately for Vestri, her 31:56.56 was worth just 1142 points and did not improve her ranking position (but remember, Cranny is still not in the Road to Tokyo tracker). Historically, USATF has honored placing at the national championship for the top three finishers within the quota, so even if McClain is behind another American in the rankings but finishes higher at USAs, she’ll be well-positioned to make the team.

The rest of the results:

• 8th place – Dominique Scott, 31:02.32
• 9th place – Pamela Kosgei, 31:02.73
• 10th place – Everlyn Kemboi, 31:24.13
• 11th place – Ella Donaghu, 31:32.93
• 12th place – Florencia Borelli, 31:36.48
• 13th place – Courtney Wayment, 31:43.17
• 14th place – Sarah Lahti, 31:44.94
• 15th place – Allie Buchalski, 31:52.41
• 16th place – Bailey Hertenstein, 31:53.26
• 17th place – Holly Campbell, 31:54.00
• 18th place – Amanda Vestri, 31:56.56
• 19th place – Ms Seema, 32:14.66
• 20th place – Vanessa Fraser, 32:21.01
• 21st place – Laura Galvan, 32:43.13
• 22nd place – Katrina Coogan, 32:53.73
• 23rd place – Ms Ankita, 33:18.03

Less to worry about on the men’s side…

The men’s side is much easier to process. Olympic champion Joshua Cheptegei is also the reigning World champion, so he has a spot, if he chooses to return to the track after a disappointing performance at the Tokyo Marathon in 2:05:59 for ninth place.

30 total men have run under the 27:00.00 standard.

Uganda – Joshua Cheptegei, Jacob Kiplimo

Kenya – Benard Kibet Koech, Ishmael Rokitto Kipkurui, Daniel Mateiko, Nicholas Kipkorir, Edwin Kurgat, Benson Kiplangat, Kibiwott Kandie, Vincent Kibet Langat

Ethiopia – Yomif Kejelcha, Berihu Aregawi, Selemon Barega, Biniam Mehary, Gemechu Dida, Tadese Worku, Telahun Haile Bekele, Kuma Girma

United States – Grant Fisher, Nico Young, Graham Blanks, William Kincaid

Eritrea – Habtom Samuel, Merhawi Mebrahtu

Spain – Thierry Ndikumwenayo

Canada – Mohammed Ahmed

South Africa – Adriaan Wildschutt

Sweden – Andreas Almgren

France – Jimmy Gressier

Switzerland – Dominic Lokinyomo Lobalu

(Brutal: India’s Gulveer Singh just missed out on the auto-qualifier by 0.22 seconds in California and took sixth at The Ten in 27:00.22.)

– Uganda’s Oscar Chelimo and Burundi’s Rodrigue Kwizera and Célestin Ndikumana get the three cross country spots.

– That ultimately leaves just three spots for men to get into the World Championships off World Rankings – Japan’s Jun Kasai, Great Britain’s Patrick Dever and France’s Felix Bour are currently holding onto those.

For American track fans, we may end up in a similar position as last year’s U.S. Olympic Trials where it was basically four men in the field competing for just three spots. Fisher, Young, Blanks, and Kincaid just have to worry about finishing in the top three at the U.S. Championships and they’re headed to Worlds.

Here are the results of the men’s race at The Ten (* denotes World qualifier):

• 1st place – Ishmael Kipkurui, 26:50.21*
• 2nd place – Habtom Samuel, 26:51.06*
• 3rd place – Adrian Wildschutt, 26:51.27*
• 4th place – Telahun Haile Bekele, 26:52.79*
• 5th place – Graham Blanks, 26:57.30*
• 6th place – Gulveer Singh, 27:00.22
• 7th place – Ahmed Muhumed, 27:03.19
• 8th place – Casey Clinger, 27:11.00
• 9th place – Denis Kipngetich, 27:20.10
• 10th place – Sean McGorty, 27:20.19
• 11th place – Drew Hunter, 27:24.49
• 12th place – Efrem Gidey, 27:26.95
• 13th place – Amon Kemboi, 27:31.41
• 14th place – Kieran Tuntivate, 27:36.56
• 15th place – Jonas Raess, 27:36.9616th place – Brian Barraza, 27:37.54
• 17th place – Valentin Soca Reyes, 27:37.65
• 18th place – Aaron Bienenfeld, 27:39.82
• 19th place – Anthony Rotich, 27:53.64
• 20th place – Rory Leonard, 28:09.20
• 21st place – Simon Bedard, 28:20.99
• 22nd place – Noah Schutte, 28:21.12