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

Final: Saturday, September 13th at 7:00pm on Peacock and CNBC

Top contenders: Ethiopian Tigist Assefa missed out on the gold medal at last summer’s Paris Olympics after making contact with Sifan Hassan with about 300 meters remaining in the race. Now she’s decided to opt against a lucrative appearance fee to try and take back her marathon world record in Berlin to pursue a World championship gold medal. She’s the favorite if you go off her personal best and the fact that she’s coming off a 2:15:50 victory in London earlier this year.

The Ethiopian Athletics Federation isn’t holding back on its attempt to win their third consecutive gold medal in this event. Sutume Kebede has been called upon to race since she’s fared well in Tokyo having won the 2024 Tokyo Marathon in 2:15:55 and defending her title this year. Berlin Marathon champion Tigist Ketema boasts a 2:16 personal best and is also in the field.

Similarly, Kenyan Peres Jepchirchir claims the 2021 Tokyo Olympic victory but her race was actually run in Sapporo. Nonetheless, she’s trying to recapture some of that magic and redeem herself from a 14th-place finish at the Paris Olympics and withdrawing from April’s London Marathon.

Dark horses: Japan loves the marathon. In many cases, Japanese distance runners love to find themselves at the front of the race. The crowds that turn out for this one on Sunday morning will get loud if that’s the case for Sayaka Sato, Yuka Ando,and Kana Kobayashi. In her five years running the marathon, Sato has taken well to the event and ran an impressive 2:20:59 to finish second at the Nagoya Marathon in May.

Jess McClain is looking to make the most of her opportunity on Team USA after finishing fourth at the 2024 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials and 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials 10,000m final. Being based in Phoenix should bode well for her ability to handle the scorching conditions, but also she’s fared well in marathons without pacers with an 8th place and 7th place showing in New York and Boston, respectively. 

Erika Kemp is also making her Team USA debut after running a big personal best of 2:22:56 with her runner-up finish at the Houston Marathon in January. Susanna Sullivan rounds out the red, white, and blue and is competing in her second World Championships at 35 years old. She was 58th in 2:44:24 at the World Championships in Budapest in very hot conditions.

One good stat: After Sharon Lokedi’s 2:17:22 course record in Boston this past spring, the World Championship record of 2:18:22, set in 2022 by Gotytom Gebreslase, is now slower than every one of the WMM course records save for NYC.