The World Championships officially kick off on Friday! This year marks the first time the global event will officially close out the season, giving athletes and fans ample time to build anticipation and storylines. We now have a clearer picture of where the top contenders stand in their preparation.

So, which events are we most (or least) excited about? The Citius Mag staff has ranked the 20 individual running events they’re most looking forward to—and the results might surprise you!

20. Women’s 400m Hurdles

Call it the Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone effect—it seems the absence of the world record holder and two-time Olympic gold medalist has really taken the sting out of the event. The predictable outcome is of course that Femke Bol will dominate the field and that will make for a pretty boring 51ish seconds. The hope is that Savannah Sutherland or Anna Cockrell can put up a formidable challenge and the possibility of Dalilah Muhammad returning to the podium gives us something to cheer for.

19. Women’s 3000m Steeplechase

This event receiving such a low ranking reeks of American bias by the Citius staff! Winfred Yavi aims for her third straight global championship in what will be a rerun of the Paris Olympics with Faith Cherotich and Peruth Chemutai rounding out the top three fastest times of the year and the likelihood of the winner dipping below the current world record is higher than most. C’mon—that’s must watch television, even if it’s live before your alarm usually goes off.

18. Men’s 3000m Steeplechase

Okay, maybe it’s not about American exceptionalism and it’s really just a steeplechase problem… Despite having the Olympic silver medalist, Kenneth Rooks, this event just isn’t gripping the staff this year. Granted, Rooks has had a rather low key presence on the international stage this season, but if we know him he is just sitting and kicking. It’s been a relatively quiet season for Soufiane El Bakkali, too, but he has two Diamond League victories, albeit by small margins. And if his chief rival Lamecha Girma hadn’t run 8:07 in June, then we’d have no idea who the favorite for silver is. Plenty of intrigue here for Germany, who’ll look to get a medalist out of Frederik Ruppert, and the hometown Japanese crowd!

17. Women’s 10,000m

This is one event where it’s not worth looking at season’s bests to determine how interesting it will be. The favorite is certainly Beatrice Chebet, but you have to wonder how she will respond to a sub-60 opening lap from Gudaf Tsegay. Will we see any sort of team tactics from Agnes Ngetich or Ejgayehu Taye to help out their respective countrywomen? The draw of this race will largely depend on if hard mid-race surges are thrown into the mix or is it just a contest of how fast Chebet can run the last 200m.

16. Men’s 110m Hurdles

Grant Holloway once said that he was motivated by proving the doubters wrong and we all looked at each other and wondered, “who the hell is he talking about?” Well, this year there may actually be some! And if he proves them wrong then suddenly it will feel like (arguably) the greatest hurdler of all time pulled off an upset. His greatest challenge will come from Cordell Tinch whose strength (his finish) is Holloway’s struggle at the moment. Now the Tokyo Olympics may not have had human asses in the seats in 2021, but with Japan’s Rachid Muratake coming off a 12.92 performance, then it may be hard to find an empty one.

15. Women’s 1500m

Blame Faith Kipyegon for this event being ranked so low in this poll – she is just that good. Maybe if Faith had shown the slightest bit of vulnerability then this would be higher up, but she looks infallible in the 1500m as she comes off yet another world record setting season. A second or two after she breaks the tape, all eyes will likely be on the race for second and with Jess Hull, Nikki Hiltz, Diribe Welteji and others in there, it’s a coin toss as 27 athletes have season bests under 4:00.

14. Men’s 10,000m

The race in Paris was fantastic not because of the winning time, but because there was nonstop violence from the front of the pack. That’s what we want to see here, though with the absence of Joshua Cheptegei’s closing speed will there be the same impetus to run so far under 27? Let’s set the stage: the top three seeds are Ethiopian and the next best three are Kenyan. And then a ways back there is the guy with the slowest season best in the field: Grant Fisher.

13. Men’s 400m

Without the Olympic Champion Quincy Hall in the field is there really a reason to run through the line anymore? Probably not worth taking that chance for Jacory Patterson who has been the dominant force this summer. In fairness, that’s largely due to the absence of Matthew Hudson-Smith, who got the best of him at the Pre Classic, but has been training away at home and presumably changing diapers. If you need something to get excited about here, then MHS finally winning gold following three straight podiums is a fun storyline.

12. Women’s 5000m

This is essentially just a repeat of the 10,000m + Faith Kipyegon… which is a pretty great addition! Last year’s race got bumpy and there were some elbows thrown, which may or may not have impacted the final outcome. Now we get a rematch between Chebet and Faith, who both separately and unsuccessfully came dangerously close to breaking the 3000m world record this season. It feels like this should be ranked in the top half of the events, but maybe there are just that many other great matchups.

11. Women’s 800m

There was a huge range in the voting from our panel on this one, with one staff member ranking it 3rd and another putting it 17th. (Full disclosure, we’ve got one British guy on the payroll.) Keely Hodgkinson is the heavy betting favorite here despite there being 15 women who have run 1:57 or faster this season. That’s what happens when you can open up in 1:54 and have the skillset to lead races from the front. The trajectory of Audrey Werro is exciting, but the prospect of her challenging for the win seems low after seeing the distance between the two in Lausanne.

10. Women’s 200m

One of Citius’ bold predictions for 2025 was that Melissa Jefferson-Wooden would become a 200m runner, and are we looking like geniuses right now or what? With the absence of the Olympic champion from Tokyo this looks like it will be a similar field to the 100m with Julien Alfred playing the role of favorite. Now Jamaican fans are doing everything they can to convince themselves that Shericka Jackson is going to be at 100% fitness when it counts, but we haven’t yet seen that Earth shattering performance this year.

9. Men’s 400m Hurdles

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: Karsten Warholm, Rai Benjamin, and Alison Dos Santos run over 10 bars… the big three are back and they keep taking turns punching each other in the face. The only thing we need to make this rivalry a little spicier is for them to stop being so polite and gracious in their wins and losses. Ultimately, the performances keep speaking for themselves and that’s more than good enough.

8. Women’s 100m Hurdles

It’s going to be weird not having Jasmine Camacho-Quinn in the mix for the first time in forever, but if you are into races where literally anyone can win, then boy do I have a race for you! Another win from Masai Russell here would make her the first woman to ever win the Olympic 100m hurdles title and follow it up by immediately winning Worlds. Part of a race capturing your interest in the lead-in is having likable and familiar characters to root for and there are 10 of them here.

7. Men’s 200m

The stars of this show may be pretending that they all get along for the cameras now, but I don’t know if that’s a story anyone is worth buying. Noah Lyles wants to prove that last year’s Olympic loss to Letsile Tebogo was a fluke and surely Kenny Bednarek will be there to push him to the line. As with any polarizing figure, there are a lot of fans rooting against Lyles repeating as World Champion because he talks a big game and has elaborate introductions and celebrations. Everyone says this sport needs more personalities… until someone actually has one!

6. Men’s 5000m

The past couple editions of global championship 5000ms weren’t all that exciting because there is one guy in the field who is the strongest and fastest and that’s hard to beat. To make it a fair fight, the writers over at World Athletics decided to work in an Achilles injury to this year’s script to make things more interesting. So how good is Jakob Ingebrigtsen? I guess we will find out! Now if you are one of the nine guys with a faster season’s best than Ingebrigtsen’s personal best, do you try to outrun him from the gun or wager that he still hasn’t done speed work?

5. Women’s 100m

We like a good head to head match-up and this one is easy to summarize: Julien Alfred vs. Melissa Jefferson-Wooden. Who is it going to be? Alfred is 5-1 lifetime, but MJW has the most recent victory from the Pre Classic. And behind the two heavy favorites, just having the presence of superstars like Sha’Carri Richardson and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in the field means all eyes will be on this one. And regardless of how she does, World Athletics will make five TikToks of Ewa Swoboda.

4. Men’s 100m

Can Jamaica reclaim its title as home to the fastest man in the world? Up until a couple of weeks ago it seemed that Kishane Thompson would be the obvious threat to take the crown. But then Oblique Seville’s dominance in Switzerland over the Olympic champion has made him a serious threat. No matter who wins here, there will be a lot of “I told you so’s” and angry people and isn’t that the point of sports? The men’s 100m did receive a single first place vote in our internal poll.

3. Men’s 800m

With 15 guys breaking 1:43 this season, it is safe to say that the 800m is so back. Emmanuel Wanyonyi showed that he is beatable in Lausanne, but in a twist that no one saw coming, Josh Hoey won’t be a threat in Tokyo, or even there at all. From the American perspective there are still three medal hopes, though only two of them are old enough to vote. The mere possibility that Cooper Lutkenhaus could be fighting for a win here makes this event a must-watch, even if it didn’t receive any first place votes.

2. Women’s 400m

Sydney vs. Marileidy vs. Salwa—come on!!!! This is what everyone has wanted the past few years and now we will get it on the biggest stage. And with three distinctive race strategies, there is a high probability of witnessing multiple lead changes in the last 100m. All three women have dipped below 49 seconds this season, yet they all have proven time and time again that they save something special for the finale. This premier event received multiple first place votes and is worth explaining the significance of to your Uber driver.

1. Men’s 1500m

Was there ever any doubt? This race has been a subject of hour-long debates on the podcast every week since 2017. Cole Hocker is jogging 49 second quarters in practice, Josh Kerr has a full staff, and Neils Laros has the wingspan of a power forward. Consider there are five other guys not named Jakob Ingebrigtsen who have also proven they’re good enough to win and this one has everything. There have been eight different winners in the last eight global championships so don’t tell us you know what’s going to happen! The men’s 1500m had by far the most first place votes among Citius Mag staffers and is this year’s most anticipated event at the 2025 World Championships.

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