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

Prelims: Thursday, September 18th at 6:05 am ET on Peacock and USA

Final: Saturday, September 20th at 8:29 am ET on Peacock and CNBC

Top contenders: The beauty of this race distance is that it brings together the strength and speed of two of the best runners in history: 1500m Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon and 5000m and 10,000m Olympic champion Beatrice Chebet. Both Kenyan women have put together spectacular seasons with dominant performances and world records to boast but we haven’t seen them head-to-head since the 5000m final at the Paris Olympics.

There’s an easy case to make for Chebet as the favorite given how fast she’s closed many of these races: 26.6 for the final 200m of her 14:27.12 in China and 28.8 for the final 200m of her 13:58.06 5000m world record on July 5th.

Chebet has a silver medal from the 2022 World Championships and a bronze medal from the 2023 World Championships, but a World Championship gold in the 5000m on the track has so far evaded her.

Kipyegon has not raced a 5000m this season and has her spot in Tokyo as the reigning World champion. She did not have to race any event at the Kenyan trials and has instead focused on showcasing her all-time fitness by chasing records. The closest reference to what she may be capable of in a 5000m could be her 8:07.04 for 3000m, which equates to a 13:58.91 on the scoring tables, putting her right in line with Chebet’s world record.

Then there’s Gudaf Tsegay, who entered three events at the Paris Olympics and left empty-handed despite having some of the fastest times leading into the Games. Tsegay has been impressive in 2025 despite employing some truly strange race plans. Opening up in 58 or 59 seconds for some of her races has caused her to fade but still land with season’s bests of 3:50.62 for 1500m and 4:11.88 for the mile. In the 5000m, she attempted to hang onto Chebet at the Prefontaine Classic until the wheels fell off, yet she was still able to run 14:04.41.

A third Kenyan, Agnes Ngetich, was viewed as a bit more of a roads specialist in 2024, but she’s proven herself on the track in this event with wins at GST and an impressive second place in Eugene with a 14:01.29.

Deciding the three medals among Chebet, Kipyegon, Tsegay, and Ngetich is going to be quite the battle, and there are also other contenders. A Chebet-Kipyegon-Ngetich sweep for Kenya would match the feat pulled off by Edna Kiplagat, Priscah Jeptoo, and Sharon Cherop at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu.

Dark horses: If you’re assessing the chances of other continents to crack the podium, the odds may be slim because Ethiopia will also have the likes of World Indoor champion Freweyni Hailu and Birke Haylom on the team. But if things get tactical, you can look to Olympic 10,000m silver medalist Nadia Battocletti of and American Josette Andrews, who ran 14:23.15 and 14:25.37, respectively, at the Rome Diamond League.

One good stat: This one’s fairly obvious, and really more of one crazy stat than a good one… but one of the four fastest women ever over 5000m (Chebet, Tsegay, Ngetich, and Kipyegon) will miss out on the podium.