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 6:50 am ET on Peacock and CNBC

Semifinals: Sunday, September 14th at 8:05 am ET on Peacock and CNBC

Final: Tuesday, September 16th at 9:05 am ET on Peacock and USA

The favorite: There’s only one top contender here and her name is Faith Kipyegon. The Olympic champion, World champion, and world record holder is already considered the greatest 1500m runner ever. She can make more history in Tokyo by matching Hicham El Guerrouj as the only athlete to claim four World Championship gold medals (and El Guerrouj never won three Olympic gold medals like Kipyegon).

Kipyegon’s season has been essentially flawless. She chased the 1000m world record in April but came up shy in 2:29.21, still the third-fastest time in history. She ran 4:06.91 for the mile in Nike’s Breaking4 event, which is faster than her world record but does not count due to the male pacemakers used in the exhibition. A week later, she lowered her 1500m world record to 3:48.68 at the Prefontaine Classic. Then she took a crack at the 3000m world record of 8:06.11 set by Wang Junxia (which is a highly suspect record) and fell short with a 8:07.04.

No one has beaten Kipyegon in a 1500m since June 2021 and it’s hard to see it happening in Tokyo.

Other contenders: With Gudaf Tsegay focusing on the 10,000m/5000m double, the next-fastest woman in the field is her Ethiopian teammate, 2023 World Championship silver medalist Diribe Welteji, whose 3:51.44 personal best (No. 8 all-time) was overshadowed by Kipyegon’s world record in Eugene. However, questions could arise about her fitness since she has not raced since then. Hannah Borenstein, a CITIUS MAG contributor with connections in Ethiopia, mentioned that the Ethiopian Athletics Federation may also have requested that some of the top stars prioritize training for Tokyo over the late Diamond League races in Europe.

Welteji has not competed since running a personal best of 3:51.44 for second place in the 1500m at the Prefontaine Classic behind Faith Kipyegon’s 3:48.68 world record. Weleteji is No. 8 on the all-time 1500m list. Welteji was 4th at the Paris Olympics last year and has a silver medal in the 1500m from the 2023 World Championships.

UPDATE:

The Athletics Integrity Unit has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport after Ethiopia’s Anti-Doping Authority cleared Diribe Welteji of a violation related to refusing or failing to submit to sample collection.

A timeline of the events:

• Aug 27: Ethiopian panel cleared Welteji of refusal or failure to submit to an anti-doping sample collection.
• Sept 1: AIU received the case file.
• Sept 8: AIU filed an appeal with CAS.
• Sept 13: Women’s 1500m heats at World Championships in Tokyo.

A decision is expected from CAS before Saturday’s races.

Olympic silver medalist Jess Hull has found good fortune when she’s stuck to her race plan of trying to hang on with Kipyegon for as long as possible. It resulted in her 3:50.83 personal best at the 2024 Paris Diamond League meet and then the Olympic silver medal a few months later. Even Hull has her limits, however, which she learned the hard way when she came close to earning her first Diamond League final win in Zurich but tied up badly with 100m to go, ending up in second place in 3:57.02. It was a good learning experience ahead of the championships and she said after she took the experience as a sign to commence her taper.

Dark horses: Nelly Chepchirchir may deserve “contender” status after pipping Hull at the finish line of the Diamond League final, but she is here mostly because she’s buried on the start lists with her 3:56.99 personal best. However, at just 22 years old, Chepchirchir has won five of her six 1500m races this year. 

Nikki Hiltz is looking to become the fifth American to medal in history to medal in this event, and they’ve never been in a better position to do so. Hiltz has run under 3:57 on three occasions, defended their U.S. title, and claimed their first Diamond League win in Brussels. The question will be whether Hiltz’s signature kick can either reel in the runners that went out with Kipyegon or outpace the competition if the race gets packed up. If the race behind Kipyegon gets really slow, that could open the door for Hiltz’s teammates Sinclaire Johnson or Emily MacKay to outperform their seeds.

One good stat: As Faith Kipyegon has improved, she’s also made the World Championship or Olympic final quicker each time out in her victories dating back to 2016, with the exception of the 2023 World Championships (and a post-partum silver medal in 2019):

• 2016 Rio Olympics – 4:08.92
• 2017 World Championships – 4:02.59
• 2021 Tokyo Olympics – 3:53.11
• 2022 World Championships – 3:52.96
• 2023 World Championships – 3:54.87
• 2024 Paris Olympics – 3:51.29