One more preview to go! A little more than 24 hours from now, the 2025 World Athletics Championships get underway in Tokyo, Japan. The first events kick off on Saturday, September 13th (the evening of Friday the 12th EDT).

In case you missed it, you can catch up with our comprehensive sprint preview and distance preview, but now it’s time to move inside the oval. You can find a full schedule with entries and live results here.

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How to keep up with all of CITIUS MAG’s extensive coverage of the World Championships – powered by ASICS:

• 🎥 CHAMPS CHATS - We will be streaming our post-race show live on YouTube at the conclusion of every evening session in Tokyo (AM in America) featuring Chris Chavez, Eric Jenkins, Anderson Emerole, Paul Hof-Mahoney and more from the CITIUS MAG team.
• 🎧 CHAMPS CHATS | Will immediately be available to stream, download and listen as a podcast on Apple Podcasts + Spotify or wherever you get your shows on The CITIUS MAG Podcast feed. Exclusive interviews with athletes will also be published as podcasts.
• 🎧 We will have episodes of Off The Rails live from Tokyo | Apple Podcasts + Spotify
• 📬 Daily newsletters, so be sure you’re subscribed to the CITIUS MAG Newsletter
• 🎦 Post-race interviews on the CITIUS MAG YouTube channel.
• 📲 Follow along for all updates, news, results and more on X and Instagram.
• 📆 Bookmark our full schedule of events here.
• 🏃 If you’re in Tokyo, join us for group runs with Asics on Sept. 12th and Sept. 19th. Details here.

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Men’s Long Jump

Schedule + How To Watch

Qualification: Monday, September 15th at 6:40am ET on Peacock and USA

Final: Wednesday, September 17th at 7:50am ET on Peacock and USA

Top Contenders: Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece has won pretty much everything over the last few years, and he’s the world leader at 8.46m, but he hasn’t been anywhere near consistent this season. He notched a last place finish in the Diamond League final in a jump of only 7.66m, and suffered his first loss at a major championships since Eugene 2022 when he failed to medal at World Indoors. He may be dealing with a niggle but also has a reputation for coming out clutch when the chips are down, and given the lack of more impressive and consistent distances from his competitors, he goes in as favorite.

In the absence of Olympic silver medalist Wayne Pinnock who is changing allegiance to Turkey, Italian bronze medallist Mattia Furlani is the 20-year-old rising star who jumped 8.37m in February and became World Indoor Champion in March, but his furthest jump in his last three competitions is 8.13m, so he may have gone off the boil a little at the sharp end of the season. Australia’s Liam Adcock has had a breakout season for joint third furthest this season with 8.34m and finished

Multi-talented Swiss athlete Simon Ehammer is doing an impressive long jump-decathlon double, and coming off a win in the Diamond League final, he’s made himself a firm contender for gold if Tentoglou has another off day.

Dark Horses: Bulgaria’s Bozhidar Sarabuyakov was Furlani’s age group nemesis and beat him to European Indoor gold earlier in 2025 so could launch himself into podium contention.Tajay Gayle of Jamaica similarly jumped 8.34m in February but has failed to clear 8m in his last three competitions, while his compatriot, Carey Mcleod, could also be a threat having jumped 8.33m in May.

One Good Stat: Juan Miguel Echevarría, the Tokyo Olympic silver medalist and an 8.68 jumper at his peak, returned to competition after over three years out with injury, and jumped consistently over 8m this year, but unfortunately the Cuban missed out on a World Championships rankings spot by one place. Okay… maybe that’s more of a sad stat.

Women’s Long Jump

Schedule + How To Watch

Qualification: Saturday, September 13th at 5:30am ET on Peacock and CNBC

Final: Sunday, September 14th at 7:40am ET on Peacock and CNBC

Top Contenders: Tara Davis-Woodhall is the reigning Olympic Champion and has the world lead at 7.12m. She has developed an ability to jump over 7m almost at will and has done so in three of her four competitions this year. She is firmly in the driving seat and the only small bit of doubt arises from the fact she has not competed since USAs and has competed so sparingly this year, which is relatively unusual in a rhythm event like the long jump. Her performance at USAs was also anxiety-inducing, as she needed all three attempts to record a legal mark and land in the top eight. That being said, she hasn’t lost a competition in over two years, undefeated since finishing second to Ivana Spanovic in Budapest. Spanovic is only entered in the triple jump this year, so she won’t be a threat this time around.

Malaika Mihambo finished behind Davis-Woodhall in Paris and has the best overall resume of anyone in the field, with World titles in 2022 and 2019 plus an Olympic gold from Tokyo. The German missed Worlds in 2023 with an injury but has returned to full form since, picking up the aforementioned silver medal last summer and leaping 7.07m this season. Larissa Iapichino of Italy jumped 7.06m in May and has not come lower than second in nine of her ten competitions this year. Her incredible consistency when competing against the majority of her top competition means she will be expecting a podium finish this time out. Iapichino also got the better of Mihambo in five of their seven matchups this season, including the Zurich DL final.

Frenchwoman Hilary Kpatcha is the other 7-meter jumper in the mix this season, but she recorded that mark back in May and hasn’t been particularly close since. She also doesn’t have a super fantastic record in championships, finishing 11th in Paris last year and failing to record a mark in Budapest. Here’s hoping 2025 is her year.

Dark Horses: World Indoor champ Claire Bryant is still relatively new to the professional ranks, but if she can replicate her performance from Nanjing she’ll have a shot at bringing Team USA home a second medal. If she doesn’t, Quanesha Burks will look to improve on her fourth-place finish from Worlds in 2022.

Two others who have shown the ability to contend in years past are Nigerian Ese Brume and Brit Jazmin Sawyers. Brume, the bronze medalist from Tokyo, has an impressive 7.17m set back during that 2021 season but has only leapt 6.79m so far this season. Sawyers has methodically made her way back after missing all of 2024 with an injury, winning the UK Championship and leaping a season’s best 6.89m back in May. At her best, she’s cleared 7 meters and has a small handful of European medals.

One Good Stat: Larissa Iapichino is the daughter of two time world long jump champion and two time Olympic silver medalist Fiona May.

Men’s Triple Jump

Schedule + How To Watch

Qualification: Wednesday, September 17th at 6:05am ET on Peacock and USA

Final: Friday, September 19th at 7:50am ET on Peacock and USA

Top Contenders: Olympic bronze medalist Andy Diaz Hernandez of Italy (via defection from Cuba) is the World Indoor champ and world leader at 17.80m, and he’s coming off a win in the Diamond League final over many of his primary rivals for gold in Tokyo. Odds-wise, he’s the favorite, although silver medalist Pedro Pichardo is not far behind and

Olympic champ Jordan Diaz Fortun of Cuba-slash-Spain has only competed once this season, a 17.16m national title last month without much competition, so he enters Worlds a huge unknown. Reigning World champion Hughes Fabrice Zango of Burkina Faso isn’t much further ahead of Diaz Fortun, with a 17.21m season’s best, but he has competed well at two Diamond Leagues and won bronze at the World Indoor Championships.

Dark Horses: Two Chinese athletes could contend for the podium: Ruiting Wu, the No. 2 seed at 17.68m, and Yaming Zhu, the World Indoor silver medalist. But neither man has competed much outside China this year, so it’s hard to judge their mettle against the rest of the international competition.

The Americans are longer shots in this event, but the trio of Russell Robinson (17.30m SB), Salif Mane (17.15m SB), or veteran Will Claye (17.09m SB) could crack the top three with a really good day, particularly if Mane gets close to his 17.52m PB set at last summer’s Olympic Trials. Mane ended up finishing sixth at the Olympics and at 23 years old is still coming into his prime.

One Good Stat: This is one event where the odds of a world record are nearly zero. No man has cleared 18m this year and only three men—Diaz, Pichardo, and Zango—have done it in the last five years. Jonathan Edwards’s epic 18.29m looks safe for a while.

Women’s Triple Jump

Schedule + How To Watch

Qualification: Tuesday, September 16th at 6:40am ET on Peacock and USA

Final: Thursday, September 18th at 7:55am ET on Peacock and USA

Top Contenders: All eyes will be on Yulimar Rojas as she returns to the runway for the first time in two years. The 29-year-old Venezuelan is the GOAT of the event at her best, with five outdoor titles, three indoor titles, and both world records in her pocket. But her performance at Worlds in 2023 was perhaps a harbinger of things to come: in that competition, Rojas only won by eight centimeters and needed her final attempt to secure the win.

Rojas doesn’t need to be at her best to pick up her fifth World gold—because her best is 62 centimeters clear of the next-best PB in the field. But if she’s lost a step in her long break post-Achilles surgery, she’ll need every centimeter to fend off the likes of Cuba’s Leyanis Perez Hernandez, the U.S.’s Jasmine Moore, Jamaica’s Shanieka Ricketts, and Thea LaFond of Dominica.

Hernandez is the reigning World indoor champ with a 14.93m mark in Nanjing that no one else has bettered so far this year. LaFond is the reigning Olympic champ, but she only has two wins in eight competitions this season. Her most recent performance was a 14.62m season’s best at the Diamond League final in Zurich, so she’s trending in the right direction, but she finished fourth in that competition. Hernandez won that competition over all her main rivals, save Rojas, so she’s in the driver’s seat at the moment.

That being said, Moore and Ricketts are the No. 2 and No. 3 jumpers in the field by personal best, so if they can equal their peak performance they can contend with anyone.

Dark Horses: Hernandez’s Cuban teammate, Liadagnis Povea, finished fourth at the 2024 Olympics, second at World indoors, and second in the DL final. Her resume isn’t as extensive as the other jumpers in the field, but she has as good a track (or is it field?) record recently as anyone else.

One Good Stat: On the day of the qualifying round, it will have been exactly two years to the day—731 days—since we last saw Yulimar Rojas compete.

Men’s Pole Vault

Schedule + How To Watch

Qualification: Saturday, September 13th at 6:05am ET on Peacock and CNBC

Final: Monday, September 15th at 7:10am ET on Peacock and USA

Top Contenders: To absolutely no one’s surprise, Mondo Duplantis is the overwhelming favorite, having broken the world record three times in 2025 alone. With a win here, the soarin’ Swede would tack yet another “W” on his 43 competition winning streak, dating back to Monaco in July 2023. Duplantis always looks to put on a show at the major championships, and things are lined up perfectly for him to become the first man over 6.30m in Tokyo.

However, the one person who could take advantage if Mondo has a slightly off day is Emmanouil “Manolo” Karalis of Greece who has now cleared the six-meter mark 11 times this season and only lost to Duplantis at the Diamond League final in late August on countback. It would be a huge surprise to see Duplantis lose, as the Swede hasn’t done so in over two years, but Karalis is the most likely one to do it.

Dark Horses: Kurtis Marschall of Australia has been having a really good season this year, with six performances at 5.90m or higher. Marschall is the bronze medalist from Worlds in 2023 and finished sixth at the Olympics last year, so he’s certainly in the medal conversation.

Even though Austin Miller got the better of him at USAs, Sam Kendricks is probably the better bet overall for a medal in Tokyo as the reigning Olympic silver medalist and two-time World champ (2017 and 2019). Kendricks only has a 5.90m personal best but tends to bring his best stuff to championship settings.

The silver medalist from Budapest, EJ Obiena of the Philippines, has had a relatively quiet season but at his best he can clear 6 meters and then some. Similarly, the ageless Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie (okay, he’s 38 years old) is still kicking around, and with a 5.91m season’s best he’s not out of the medal conversation either. The other entrants who haven’t shown their best stuff this season but could contend at their best include Norwegian Sondre Guttormsen (6.00m PB), Pole Piotr Lisek (6.02m PB), and Thibaut Collet, also of France (5.95m PB).

One Good Stat: The winner of the last competition Mondo lost—the Monaco DL, in poor weather in 2023—Chris Nilsen is the only other six-meter vaulter besides Karalis and Duplantis this year, but he had to scratch from USAs with an injury so he won’t have the chance to take on the World champion once again.

Women’s Pole Vault

Schedule + How To Watch

Qualification: Sunday, September 14th at 8:05pm ET on Peacock

Final: Wednesday, September 17th at 7:10pm ET on Peacock and USA

Top Contenders: With Olympic champ Nina Kennedy out of the picture, this should be three-time global champ and 2024 Olympic silver medalist Katie Moon’s to lose. But not so fast: Moon may have won four Diamond Leagues this season, including the final in Zurich, but her longtime training partner/Team USA teammate Sandi Morris took the national title at USAs and has been right on her tail all season. And beyond that, neither woman is the world leader—that’s another American, collegian Amanda Moll.

Moon has logged two of her three best efforts of the season in her last two competitions, so she’s definitely trending the right direction. And with Morris, Moon, Moll, and Moll (Amanda’s twin, Hana) on the roster, a U.S. sweep is certainly possible, but not necessarily likely. The most likely challengers to American dominance will be Brit Molly Caudery, who skipped the DL final but finished right behind Moon in Brussels at 4.80m, and Angelica Moser of Switzerland, the only other 4.80m vaulter in the world this year.

Dark Horses: Tina Sutej of Slovenia has finished fourth at the last two World Championships… could this be the year she breaks through to the podium? And Kiwi Eliza McCartney has only competed once this season, winning the New Zealand Championship in a conservative 4.65m, but she’s a 4.95m jumper at her best.

One Good Stat: The last global championship without Moon or Morris on the podium was 2015 in Beijing, and it looks highly likely that their joint streak will continue another year.

Men’s High Jump

Schedule + How To Watch

Qualification: Sunday, September 14th at 5:40am ET on Peacock and CNBC

Final: Tuesday, September 16th at 7:35am ET on Peacock and USA

Top Contenders: This continues to be one of the more topsy-turvy events on the international scene. The Olympic champ, Hamish Kerr of New Zealand, won the Diamond League final over Ukrainian Oleh Doroshchuk, but South Korea’s Sanghyeok Woo beat Kerr at World Indoors after missing the podium entirely at last year’s Olympics. Doroshchuk and Woo are the co-world leaders at 2.34m, but Kerr, Jan Stefela of Czechia, and Japan’s Yuko Seko are right behind them with 2.33m season’s bests. Olympic silver medalist Shelby McEwen of Team USA only has a 2.26m SB, on the other hand, so he’ll need to step it up to get back on the podium.

Tokyo Olympic co-champs Mutaz Essa Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi are on the entry list, but both have had, frankly, frankly, dreadful seasons so far. But the Qatari Barshim and Italian Tamberi both tend to reverse their trajectories when championships come around, so they can’t be counted out entirely.

Dark Horses: U.S. champ Tyus Wilson doesn’t have a lot of experience internationally, as he’s coming off his senior year at the University of Nebraska. He only finished sixth at NCAAs before winning USAs so who knows what we’ll get in Japan. JuVaughn Harrison, who finished third, is a bit more of a known quantity as a pro, with a silver medal from Budapest, but he failed to make the final in Paris. He’s on the upswing, however, with a third-place finish in this year’s DL final.

One Good Stat: 41-year-old Bahamian jumper Donald Thomas, who won a World title back in 2007, was born less than one year after the first-ever World Championships.

Women’s High Jump

Schedule + How To Watch

Qualification: Thursday, September 18th at 6:15am ET on Peacock and USA

Final: Sunday, September 21st at 6:30am ET on Peacock and CNBC

Top Contenders: Ukrainian Yaroslava Mahuchikh is the defending champion and the Paris Olympic champion, as well as the world record holder, so at any other time would be considered the favourite. However in comparison to previous years her results have been far less consistent, with several competitions where she failed to clear 2m (previously almost a given for her), and multiple losses. However a 2.02m for second at the Diamond League Final in Zurich indicates she is perhaps returning to her best form.

Australia’s Nicola Olsylagers has been the woman to beat this year with winning 6 of her last seven competitions, including beating Mahuchikh on multiple occasions, and also beating a strong field for the World Indoor title in March. With her 2.04m Oceanian Record to take the win in Zurich, she is literally raising the bar, and Mahuchikh will have to have her very best day to beat her.

The bronze medal position is much more wide open but there are three other women who have cleared 2m this year in Great Britain’s Morgan Lake, Germany’s Christina Honsel, and Ukraine’s Yuliya Levchenko.

Dark Horses: Eleanor Patterson has not been particularly consistent this season but the Aussie has jumped 1.99m and medaled at the last three global championships so should not be counted out for a spot on the podium. Serbia’s Angelina Topic is a rising star who is waiting for her breakthrough moment, after qualifying for the Olympic final last year in spite of breaking her foot in qualifying and has been close to 2m on multiple occasions.

One Good Stat: American Vashti Cunningham has competed at every outdoor World Championship and Olympic high jump competition since 2016, and is slated to extend that streak in Tokyo.