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.
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• 🎦 Post-race interviews on the CITIUS MAG YouTube channel.
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• 📆 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 Shot Put

Schedule + How To Watch

Qualification: Friday, September 12th at 9:55pm ET on Peacock

Final: Saturday, September 13th at 8:10am on Peacock and CNBC

Top Contenders: These championships could symbolize a slight changing of the guard in this event, as the Olympic silver and bronze medalists won’t be competing and Ryan Crouser, the defending World and Olympic champion, hasn’t competed all year, and will be opening his season in Tokyo.

Looking at their body of work from 2025, Leonardo Fabbri and Payton Otterdahl appear to be the class of this field. Both men have struggled with consistency in recent competitions, but their highs (a world-leading 22.82m for Fabbri to win the Italian title and Otterdahl’s 22.35m SB at USAs) are a tall task for anyone else to match. The American may have the slight edge coming into this one, as he finished runner-up at the Diamond League Final, only behind the absent-from-Tokyo Joe Kovacs, and won the Silesia Diamond League 11 days before that with a great mark of 22.28m. Fabbri, on the other hand, failed to win a single Diamond League competition this season and was just sixth in Zurich.

Alright, time to address the elephant in the room with six global golds around its neck. The qualifying round in Tokyo will serve as Ryan Crouser’s season opener, and the GOAT is a complete wild card after dealing with an elbow injury all season that’s (temporarily) thrown a wrench into his plans for world domination. We had our first sign of life in the circle in months thanks to this revealing video from the U.S. training camp across the Pacific. It’s not much (he doesn’t even have an implement in his hand), but it is worth noting he’s using his signature “Crouser slide” on his entry, which could signal he won’t be going for a cautious static start in competition even despite the circumstances. 

Walking into tough situations in big moments is something Crouser’s become accustomed to in recent years. He produced the second-best throw in history to win in Budapest two years ago with a pair of blood clots in his leg and opened his 2024 outdoor campaign with a commanding win at Trials thanks to this same elbow injury—but this year’s situation could prove to be Crouser’s toughest obstacle yet.

Dark Horses: Calling the U.S. champ and a former World bronze medalist a dark horse feels silly, but Josh Awotunde’s 22.47m bomb in Eugene last month, the third-best throw in the world this year, is an outlier on his record. The world’s biggest Denny’s fan hasn’t been as active on the international circuit this year as some of his top competitors, but he followed up his national title with a solid mark of 21.68m to comfortably win NACACs. He has the pedigree and championship record that a lot of guys in this field lack, but he’s only thrown 22m once in the last two years.

This season, American Tripp Piperi has delivered on the potential he showed during his time at Texas, breaking 22m for the first time and recording the five best marks of his career. The World Indoor bronze medalist has competed a ton and remained super consistent all season, with his worst competition of the past three months coming in rainy Lausanne, where he still threw 21.49m and finished third. If everyone has their best days, he may not have the ceiling to hang with the big dogs just yet, but he’s probably the least likely in the field to have a bad day.

New Zealand’s Tom Walsh and Nigeria’s Chuk Enekwechi are two more guys who have been steady all year even without matching the high-end output of the Otterdahls and Fabbris of the world. Walsh, the World Indoor champ from March, has been between 21.47m and 21.89m in each of his last six meets, a huge bounceback after needing to retire early from the Olympic final with an adductor injury. Enekwechi also busted through the 22-meter barrier this year, setting an African record of 22.10m at Pre, but he heads to Tokyo after finishing seventh at each of the final two Diamond Leagues.

One Good Stat: If Ryan Crouser can’t manage a medal in Tokyo, it will mean that the men’s shot put will see an entirely new podium from one global outdoor championship to the next for the first time since the 2008 Olympics, where Tomasz Majewski, Christian Cantwell, and Dylan Armstrong supplanted 2007 World medalists Reese Hoffa, Adam Nelson, and Rutger Smith.

Women’s Shot Put

Schedule + How To Watch

Qualification: Friday, September 19th at 9:00pm ET on Peacock

Final: Saturday, September 20th at 6:54am ET on Peacock and CNBC

Top Contenders: Chase Jackson, Sarah Mitton, and Jessica Schilder constitute a Big 3 in this event that may be more clear than in any other on the schedule (see “one good stat” below). By seed, they’re at least 41cm clear of the rest of the world. Jackson has lost six times this year, but only to Mitton and Schilder. Mitton hasn’t lost to anyone not named Jackson or Schilder since May 3, and Schilder’s fifth-place finish at Pre—which was the deepest competition since the late 80s—is the only time in her 17 competitions that a non-Big 3 member bested her.

Even among the holy trinity, Jackson has emerged as the clear number one. Since June 28th, the defending two-time World champ has put out the four best throws of the last decade, led by a 20.95m effort in Idaho. She hasn’t been completely infallible, losing to Schilder in Monaco and Zurich, but she’s also been dealing with a finger injury since before USAs. Her most recent reel, though, says that she’s still in the shape of her life while no longer needing to manage pain on every throw. That’s a dangerous prospect for both her competitors and the legendary 21m barrier.

Mitton and Schilder have been jockeying for position all season. Despite Mitton’s gold in Nanjing earlier this year, her Dutch rival has the slight advantage as they make their way to Worlds. Schilder won the Diamond League title two weeks ago and her 20.47m mark from Xiamen is the best throw this outdoor season by anyone other than Jackson. However, Mitton fouled a 20.67m throw that had initially won her the big ol’ diamond in Zurich before it was overturned on protest. It was a blatant foul, so it’s not as simple as “If she just keeps that one in the ring, she’s golden,” but it does show that she’s still in the shape to put a huge mark out there.

Dark Horses: The top two finishers from Paris both fall into this section because of how weird this event was at the Olympics! No intended slight to either Germany’s Yemisi Ogunleye or Kiwi Maddi Wesche, who have both followed up their big Olympic performances with PBs in 2025, but it’s simply emphasizing how excellent the Big 3 have been this year.

Wesche perhaps has the best chance of anyone to shake up the favored podium. She’s competed sparingly this year, but she broke the 20m barrier for the first time at Pre, throwing 20.06m, and is consistently an excellent championship performer. She set a new PB in every championship final she competed in between Tokyo and Paris. Ogunleye has had a decent season, but she’s yet to break 20m outdoors and didn’t even qualify for the Diamond League Final. However, as she showed us last year, literally anything can happen when the Olympic champ walks into the ring.

Maggie Ewen had been putting together an impressive comeback season after breaking her foot last February (and still competing all year). She finished runner-up at USAs with a mark of 19.94m, her best since May 2023, but an elbow injury that popped up after Eugene kept her below 19m in each of the last two Diamond Leagues. Jaida Ross also could be a surprise pick to earn a second American medal, but the Olympic fourth-placer has had a middling last few competitions after a 20.13m PB at Pre.

One Good Stat: Of the 36 competitions this season where a woman has thrown 20m, Chase Jackson, Sarah Mitton and Jessica Schilder account for 33.

Men’s Discus

Schedule + How To Watch

Qualification: Friday, September 19th at 8:00pm ET (group A) and 9:35pm ET (group B) on Peacock

Final: Sunday, September 21st at 7:00am ET on Peacock and CNBC

Top Contenders: Is this finally the time Mykolas Alekna gets it done? That question is a bit harsh, as it’s not a complete disappointment that a 22-year-old hasn’t won a World title in an event where athletes don’t typically reach their primes until their late 20s, but Alekna is far from a typical thrower. With another world record (75.56m), the best throw ever in a stadium (71.70m), and a Diamond League title to his name this year, it feels like there’s no excuses for anything other than victory in Tokyo.

The only man in the world to best the young Lithuanian this year is an even younger Jamaican, Ralford Mullings. The Oklahoma Sooner downed his Cal (now Oregon) rival at NCAAs and again at his Diamond League debut in Brussels (although that’s a technicality because Alekna handily beat him in a “promotional event” at Pre). Mullings has cemented himself as a true medal contender, throwing 68.98m or better in four of his last five competitions, including a 72.01m PB last month in Ramona. The JAAA may have lost Olympic champ Rojé Stona, but Mullings is a more than worthy replacement, and hopefully they don’t mess it up this time.

Matty Denny of Australia and Kristjan Čeh of Slovenia round out the quartet to have thrown 72m this year, but neither has quite as much momentum as their younger counterparts entering this championship. Denny took two months off competing after a scorching start to the year, but didn’t break 67m in either of his competitions since returning to the ring. Čeh is a battle-tested competitor on this stage, having broken the 70m barrier at Worlds in 2022 and 2023, but he hasn’t cleared 69m, a distance it took to medal in Paris, in nearly three months.

Dark Horses: For Daniel Ståhl to have inserted himself back into the conversation as a legitimate medal contender is an accomplishment in and of itself. The defending World champ had a rough (by his standards) 2024, as he went three months without throwing 67m and finished seventh at the Olympics, his worst finish at a major since he failed to make the final in Rio. The imposing Swede has bounced back fabulously, though, breaking 70m on two occasions this summer and recording five more competitions over 68m. Recent form shows he may be a step back of the previously discussed foursome, but this is a guy who won the last World Championship with a meet record of 71.46m on the final throw of the competition.

It’s been nearly a decade since a German man landed on a global discus podium, but this year’s squad has a chance to return Germany to its former glory. Mika Sosna, Henrik Janssen and Steven Richter have all thrown at least 69.61m this year and the worst “non-Ramona” SB among them is Sosna’s 67.56m.

The U.S. team could be the best it’s been in a while as Sam Mattis, Reggie Jagers, and Marcus Gustaveson seek to earn the first American medal in this event since 2017 and only the second since the turn of the century. Jagers hit a big mark of 66.85m only a few weeks removed from a serious back injury to win the U.S. title, and Mattis has had some solid international showings this year to complement his 71.27m bomb from April (you already know where it was, don’t sound so surprised).

One Good Stat:

Of the 15 competitions in history where a man has thrown over 72m, 10 of them have come this year: three each for Mykolas Alekna, Kristjan Čeh, and Matty Denny and one for Ralford Mullings. And it’s not just because of the Ramona of it all—half of those marks came outside of Oklahoma!

Women’s Discus

Schedule + How To Watch

Qualification: Friday, September 12th at 8:00pm ET (group A) and 9:55pm ET (group B) on Peacock

Final: Sunday, September 14th at 6:10am ET on Peacock and CNBC

Top Contenders: Just like we said for USAs, there is really only one top contender in the field, and said contender’s name is Valarie Allman. Once again seeking the only title that has eluded her, Allman heads to Tokyo having not lost since the 2023 edition of this meet. This year, she holds the world lead with a mammoth 73.52m toss from April and also owns the eight best non-Ramona marks in the world. There’s never any accounting for random mulit-meter PBs like we saw in Eugene and Budapest to keep Allman off the top of the podium, but the form she’s shown the last 24 months means that she should be well capable of answering any remarkable performance thrown at her.

Since this section isn’t solely contenders for gold, we also need to talk about the season Jorinde van Klinken has been having. The Dutch dual-eventer has been fighting for medals all decade, finishing fourth in each of the last two World Championships, but this looks to be her best chance to earn a global medal. She’s been over 64m in every competition this year, with the occasional 66m mark thrown in there and a SB of 67.15m from the Diamond League Final. An even bigger reason to ride the Jorinde Hype Train, though, is that she’s admittedly been “pissed off” after every meet and just nailed a practice PB in the leadup to Tokyo. Buy stock now.

American Lagi Tausaga-Collins and Croatia’s Sandra Elkasević know a thing or two about winning a World title, and that championship pedigree will be on full display once again as they pursue another medal for their trophy cases. Elkasević has had an infrequent yet productive season, throwing 66.97m at Pre and then finishing fourth at the Diamond League Final. Tausaga-Collins has found consistency around the 64m range, an important piece of the puzzle after a disastrous 2024, but the defending World champ’s best Diamond League finish has only been third, way back in Xiamen.

Dark Horses: China’s Bin Feng may be only three years removed from a World title and may have medals from Eugene, Budapest and Paris around her neck, but she falls comfortably in this category given that her 2025 season has just not been that good. Whereas she usually has multiple meets over 67m by this point in the season, her SB is only 64.19m and she ranks 15th in the field by that metric. She’s found ways to stun us all in the past, but it feels like an outcome of that nature would be a bit more far-fetched this year.

Like their male counterparts, this year’s German squad is particularly strong and positioned well to make good things happen in the ring. Shanice Craft threw a big PB of 68.10m and comes to Tokyo off of back-to-back 65m showings, and Kristen Pudenz, the silver medalist from when the Olympics were in this stadium four years ago, chucked the second-best throw of her life earlier this season, going out to 67.61m.

Other potential sleepers include American Gabi Jacobs, who was out of the sport two years ago but now finds herself on a plane to Tokyo with a 68.21m PB from April, and Vanessa Kamga, the Swedish Olympic fifth-placer who has gotten stronger and stronger as the year has worn on.

One Good Stat: The top five women in the world this year are all American, a feat that has never been matched by any nation this century.

Men’s Hammer

Schedule + How To Watch

Qualification: Sunday, September 14th at 8:00pm ET (group A) and 9:45pm ET (group B) on Peacock

Final: Tuesday, September 16th at 8:00am ET on Peacock and USA

Top Contenders: Hungary’s Bencé Halasz, the U.S.’s Rudy Winkler, and Canada’s Ethan Katzberg have been putting on a fantastic show all year long, and it’s brought about something that this event sorely missed last year: drama. In 2024, Katzberg was the newly-crowned World champ and dominated the season from start to finish, opening the year at 84.38m and winning the Olympic title at 84.12m. He only lost once, and usually would decimate the field by several meters.

Winkler and Halasz have opted not to go quietly into that good night of mustachioed, Canadian domination, with both men tacking huge chunks onto their PBs this year and handing Katzberg losses in three of his four most recent competitions. Halasz enters Tokyo on a string of four straight competitions over 81m, something even Katzberg has never done, and he’s the world leader with an 83.18m toss from the Gyulai Istvan Memorial in Budapest last month. Winkler has doubled his career number of 80m days from five to 10 this season, including an 83.16m American record at Pre.

Despite Katzberg having the worst SB among the three men listed above at 82.73m, it’s tough to bet against him as the favorite. At only 23, he’s already proven he can elevate on the global stage better than just about anyone else in the world, regardless of event. In Budapest, he broke 80m for the first time with an 81.XXm effort before coming up just short of a much loftier PB in Paris. This is in no way a slight to Halasz, who has a trio of global medals, or Winkler, who’s finished inside the top eight at the last four championships, but there’s something to be said for the championship edge Katzberg has proven to own time and time again.

Dark Horses: This year’s crop of dark horses could just as easily be the top contenders in any other season. Ukraine’s Mykhaylo Kokhan, who held the third spot on the podium last August next to Katzberg and Halasz, has put out really far marks every time he’s in the cage. He went out to a PB of 81.66m to win the European Team Championship. There, he finished ahead of Merlin Hummel, an exceptionally talented young German who also threw a PB of 81.27m, and Halasz. The Ukrainian may not have the high-end to compete with the top three if they have good days, but he’ll surely be ready to pounce if any of them slip.

Looking at marks alone, Yann Chaussinand would appear to be among the heaviest medal favorites. The Frenchman has thrown 81m in three meets, including a PB of 81.91m back in May. However, he’s struggled in meets outside of France against big competition. He did pick up a solid win in Zagreb, but his other international meets have resulted in two fourth- and two fifth-place finishes, with a best mark of only 78.45m. Five-time World champ Pawel Fajdek is still a medal threat on the right day after a sneaky 79.07m throw to win the Polish title.

Women’s Hammer

Schedule + How To Watch

Qualification: Saturday, September 13th at 8:00pm ET (group A) and 9:45pm ET (group B) on Peacock

Final: Monday, September 15th at 8:00am ET on Peacock and USA

Top Contenders: Six of the eight best women to ever throw the hammer will duke it out in Tokyo, as well as half of the ten women to ever win a global title in the event. That rocks.

Like her countryman Katzberg, Camryn Rogers is the defending World and Olympic champion, and, despite not being the world leader, feels like a pretty clear favorite to go back-to-back. She just steps up to the plate in the clutch situations in a way that nobody else has been able to in recent years. In the biggest competition of the year so far, Rogers crushed a PB of 78.88m to win the Pre Classic ahead of Americans DeAnna Price and Brooke Andersen. Just like last year, Rogers only has one loss on her resume and only two meets under 75m. In an event that has been defined by inconsistency in recent years, she has been infallible.

On paper, Andersen has been the best hammer thrower in the world since 2022; she’s just struggled to put it together when it’s mattered most. Even this year, she has the only two performances over 79m, yet she’s lost her three most recent competitions leading into Tokyo, including Pre to Rogers and USAs to Price. That being said, all it takes is one. If she gets that one, it’ll be a tall task to prevent Andersen from repeating her 2022 World title.

The last time we saw Price, she was crushing a stacked U.S. Championship field to the tune of 78.53m, her best throw since setting the American record in 2021. That season was derailed by an ankle injury before she made the trek to Tokyo, but Price has had no such issues this time around and said she’s feeling the best she has since her World title in 2019. With another month-and-a-half of training in the bank, it’s tantalizing to think of where she might be at now.

Dark Horses: Rachel Richeson and Janee’ Kassanavoid round out what is almost certainly be the most impressive U.S. event representation that this meet. Richeson has exploded into medal contention this year, adding four meters onto her PB in her season opener and recording three meets at 76.65m or better. This progression has come at a slight cost, though, as foul troubles have sprung up here and there. Her boom-or-bust tendencies mean she could do something really special in her first time in a U.S. kit, or she could just as well fail to make the final.

Kassanavoid has a flawless medal record on the global stage, picking up bronze in Eugene and silver in Budapest, and this season has an absolute win in terms of making it back to this meet after missing out on the Olympic team last summer. She’s been consistent, but she hasn’t thrown 75m since late May. In order to land back on the podium, Kassanavoid will need something she hasn’t produced in a long time. It’s not out of the realm of possibility, but it’s worth keeping in mind.

Finland and China both send strong duos that could shake up North America’s dreams of a sweep. Krista Tervo and Silja Kosonen have each thrown over 77m this summer, while Olympic bronze medalist Zhao Jie will be joined by world junior record holder Zhang Jiale. And of course, you can’t discount the freshly 40-year-old GOAT, Anita Wlodarczyk, who finished fourth in Paris and has a strong SB of 74.70m from Pre, where she beat Kassanavoid and Richeson.

Men’s Javelin

Schedule + How To Watch

Qualification: Wednesday, September 17th at 6:10am ET (group A) and 7:45am ET (group B) on Peacock and USA

Final: Thursday, September 18th at 6:23am ET on Peacock and USA

Top Contenders: Germany’s Julian Weber and Indian national hero Neeraj Chopra are the favorites for gold and silver by a pretty significant margin, but there is one looming question mark that could majorly unseat the natural order of things… which we’ll get to in a minute!

Weber has been agonizingly close to the podium in recent years, finishing fourth in Tokyo, Eugene, and Budapest. After a slightly underwhelming 2024, Weber has found new life this season, breaking 90m for the first time in Doha and then improving his PB to 91.51m at the Diamond League final. The only blot on his record is a 28cm loss to Chopra in Paris. Plain and simple, he’s been the best in the world. It’s been a long wait for the 31-year-old to reach global glory, but his first taste could very well be gold.

The world’s most famous track and field athlete is in a position somewhat opposite to Weber, as Chopra already has four global medals but has failed to build upon his first 90m breakthrough from Doha. He had a good day in the aforementioned Paris Diamond League, going 88.16m, but all other marks have been somewhat middling by his standards. He showed last year that he can throw down a huge mark when it matters most even if his results leading into it aren’t the most inspiring, but Weber’s excellence might be too much to overcome this time, even if we get a vintage Chopra moment.

That leads us to the man who only shows up in championship season: Olympic record holder Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan. His reasoning for only competing once this year is more clear than it has been in the past, as he underwent calf surgery in July. He’s good to go per his doctor, which means it’s not entirely out of the realm of possibility he steps on the runway and heaves the javelin beyond the 90m line. 

Dark Horses: An American man hasn’t medaled in this event on the global stage since Breaux Greer in 2007, but Curtis Thompson has a solid chance of snapping that drought. He’s in an elite club with Weber and Chopra as the only men in the world to throw 87m on multiple occasions, as he hit that mark in his opener (87.76m) and his most recent competition (87.24m). Throw in an 86.17m ancillary mark at NACACs and an 83.89m throw to win the U.S. title, and Thompson on the podium could be more likely than you think.

Luiz Mauricio Da Silva has followed up a breakout 2024 with an astounding 2025, already having broken his own South American record on three occasions. The most recent (and probably most permanent) of these records came last month, when he threw 91.00m at the Brazilian Championships. His international opportunities have been few and far between this year, but he made the most of his biggest one with a then-PB for third in Paris.

London (yes, London) Olympic champ Keshorn Walcott is still one of the world’s best, and he’s coming off of very strong performances in Brussels and Zurich. The Trinbagonian has surprisingly never won a medal at Worlds, but his recent trajectory implies there’s a distinct possibility he finally checks that box off.

Women’s Javelin

Schedule + How To Watch

Qualification: Friday, September 19th at 6:30am ET (group A) and 8:00am ET (group B) on Peacock and USA

Final: Saturday, September 20th at 8:05am ET on Peacock and CNBC

Top Contenders: You could ask 10 different people to give you their podiums, they could give you 10 different answers, and absolutely none of them could turn out to be right. That’s how unpredictable this year of women’s javelin has been. The in-house favorite is probably a battle between two women: Adriana Vilagoš of Serbia and Elina Tzengko of Greece.

Vilagoš opened her season with a pair of absolute missiles, going 66.88m and 67.22m in her first two competitions of the year. She hasn’t broken 65m since then, but luckily nobody else really has either. Her worst finish all year has been third at the European Team Championships, but she’s been in the mid-60s consistently enough to instill confidence.

Tzengko’s season has largely mirrored her Serbian rival’s, as she hasn’t had any huge throws, but has just found her way towards the top of the results every single meet. She hasn’t shown the same upside that Vilagoš displayed earlier in the season, but she did comfortably walk away with the Diamond League crown two weeks ago.

Dark Horses: Maybe I’m being too much of a Negative Nancy to relegate Haruka Kitaguchi to this tier ahead of a home World Championships, but the fact of the matter is that the defending Olympic and World champ has not looked that good in 2025. She does deserve some grace for dealing with an elbow injury, but two competitions after taking significant time away from competing were dead last finishes in Lausanne and Zurich. The raucous home crowd will buoy her, but the obstacles might just be too much to surmount this time around.

Jo-Ané Du Plessis (née Van Dyk) didn’t win her Olympic silver last year by putting up big flashy marks, it was by being steady, even when others faltered. She’s been steady again this year, going 62.xx on four occasions. If the South African can capture the PB magic like she did last year in qualifying and the final, there’s no reason she can’t repeat a medal-winning effort.

Austria’s Victoria Hudson and Norway’s Sigrid Borge have suffered eerily similar fates this season: a huge mark at European Team Championships—67.76m for Hudson, still the world lead, and 65.66m for Borge—but not much else to show for on the season. They’ve both shown they’re capable of hitting medal-winning marks, but the whole body of work doesn’t quite stack up to what we see elsewhere in the field.