Greetings from Tokyo! We’re only one day away from the 2025 World Athletics Championships starting Saturday, September 13th (the evening of Friday the 12th EDT).

In case you missed it, you can read our comprehensive sprint preview here as we move onto the events 800m on up. During the meet, we’ll bring you minute-by-minute coverage, daily live shows, and newsletters all along the way. 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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Schedule + How To Watch

Heats: Saturday, September 13th at 8:35 pm ET on Peacock

Semifinals: Monday, September 15th at 8:30 am ET on Peacock and USA

Final: Wednesday, September 17th at 9:20 am ET on Peacock and USA

We could honestly do a whole newsletter on just this event. Just as we did on the podcast, we think the way to frame the 1500m is to share the cases for and against the top stars:

Cole Hocker (USA)

The Case For: He’s the reigning Olympic champion and it would be silly to discount him a year after he went 3:27.65 to win in one of the greatest races of the century. He went into the Paris Olympics with a 3:30.59 personal best and you could say that he’s ahead of that since he’s run 3:30.37 this year. When you hear Hocker speak, he has full confidence in himself and his coach’s plan, saying they know how to peak for the championships.

The Case Against: You’ll hear the stat thrown around that he has not won a 1500m race since Paris. He was beaten by two guys at the U.S. Championships and just barely made the team. That being said, he quickly brushed it off by going out and winning the 5000m two days later.

Josh Kerr (Great Britain)

The Case For: No one has a better global championship record in the 1500m since the Tokyo Olympics than Kerr, with medals in three of the last four. He enters as the reigning World champion, which allowed him to take all of the spring and summer to solely focus on peaking for this event.

He got his championship-style tests on the Grand Slam circuit, with 1500m wins in Miami and Philadelphia before the league’s season was discontinued. Next, he came away with a 3:29.37 runner-up finish at the London Diamond League in July. (Remember: He didn’t even race a 1500m before the Paris Olympics). Kerr jogged a 13:44 to win the British 5000m national title and he’s been hard at work and training in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for this title defense.

The Case Against: No man has won back-to-back World titles since Asbel Kiprop in 2011, 2013, and 2015 (notably, Kiprop was later suspended for testing positive for EPO.) Heavy is the head that wears the crown. Much like Hocker, you can’t doubt that Kerr will show up in form to a championship until he doesn’t.

Niels Laros (Netherlands)

The Case For: No one is sharper in the 1500m right now than the 20-year-old Dutchman. He had a slightly delayed start to his season after some illness following the indoor season but he looks like he’s leveled up since his sixth place finish at the Paris Olympics. (It will also help that two of the guys that beat him in Paris—Yared Nuguse and Hobbs Kessler—failed to qualify for Tokyo.) The first sign of improvement came with a 3:45.94 victory against a deep Bowerman Mile field, where he hawked down Nuguse in the closing meters. He decimated another strong field at the Brussels DL and then again at the Zurich final while closing out both races with 12.5-second speed for his final 100 meters. His tactical savvy was impressive in both races, not just for a 20 year old, but for any 1500m runner, regardless of experience.

The Case Against: We don’t know if he can pull off that same kick in a 3:28 or 3:27 race. When asked about this, he said he was confident in his ability to handle that pace. A two or three-second PB in the final is not unheard of. Remember that Hocker guy?

Phanuel Koech (Kenya)

The Case For: About two months ago, the 18-year-old looked like he was the clear favorite after a 3:27.72 showing for second at the Paris Diamond League, a 3:29.05 win in Ostrava, and a win over Kerr at the London DL in 3:28.82.

The Case Against: In slightly slower races, he’s more vulnerable — he went 3:31.41 for second in Brussels and 3:30.02 for third in Zurich. Another question will be how he handles rounds. His only championship experience is last year’s U20 World Championships, where he finished fifth in the final of the 800m.

A few more quick ones…

Timothy Cheruiyot (Kenya)

The Case For: He’s a past champion and has strung together some solid performances: a 3:29.75 season’s best and a fourth-place finish in the Diamond League final. He’s made six global championship finals in his career.

The Case Against: He has not even been the best Kenyan this year.

Azeddine Habz (France)

The Case For: He’s the fastest 1500m runner of the year with a 3:27.49 win at the Paris Diamond League in front of his home crowd.

The Case Against: Habz has not historically been that great in championship settings, with his best result being a 11th place finish in 2023 (missing the final entirely in 2024). He also got beaten in his next two Diamond Leagues after Paris.

Stefan Nillessen (Netherlands)

The Case For: He’s the fifth-fastest man entered by season’s best with a 3:29.23 from a fifth place finish at the Paris Diamond League.

The Case Against: He’s underperformed in big races, including a 13th-place finish in the Bowerman Mile in 3:49.53, and did not even contest the Diamond League final.

Isaac Nader (Portugal)

The Case For: His Oslo mile win in 3:48.25 over the likes of Stefan Nillessen, Timothy Cheruiyot, and Cameron Myers was impressive. He’s also run 3:29.37 this year behind Koech in Ostrava.

The Case Against: He hasn’t won anything else this year except the 1500m at the European Team Championships, which was a 3:39 race.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen (Norway)

The Case For: Ingebrigtsen is one of the best 1500m runners in history, but we honestly do not know what we’re in for until the first rounds of the 1500m commence on Saturday. Ingebrigtsen is returning to the site of his Olympic gold medal and this past indoor season, he looked like he was on a mission to get another while potentially setting some world records along the way. Then, an Achilles flare-up meant he had to sit idly and watch as new competition like Koech, Laros, and Habz stepped up their game.

In the Olympic final in Paris, he became the de facto pacer and failed to medal. So if there’s a chance his return from injury causes him to play it a bit more patiently and not be the aggressor at the front of the race, it could flip his fortune after three consecutive global championships of shortcomings. But, Ingebrigtsen could also throw all that caution to the wind and risk it all. By his own admission: “Time to roll the dice.. 🎲🇯🇵”

The Case Against: He’s opening his season at the World Championships! He’s not the kind of athlete who would do so if he wasn’t ready, so you have to commend his determination to show up in the first place. But how race-sharp can you be without any races?

One good stat: The last time the man with the fastest time on the year was also that year’s global champion? 2019. The man? None other than Timothy ​​Cheruiyot, who won Worlds in Doha by a commanding two-second margin and clocked a 3:28.77 in Lausanne.