The journey to Japan is intensifying for athletes around the world, with just two months to go to the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25.
While many of the sport’s stars will be looking to secure their spots for the global showpiece when they compete at their national championships next month, here we highlight some of the athletes who could light up the Japan National Stadium from September 13-21.
Beatrice Chebet
As well as being a double Olympic champion in the 5000m and 10,000m, Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet is a world record-holder on both the roads and on the track. She set a world 10,000m record in Eugene in May last year and went on to set her second world 5km record in Barcelona in December and a world 5000m record in Eugene earlier this month.
After claiming world 5000m silver in Oregon and bronze in Budapest, the 25-year-old will be looking to complete the medal set with at least one gold in Tokyo.
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Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce
Jamaican sprint star Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce will want to put on a show in what she has said will be her final World Championships before retirement.
The 10-time World Championships gold medallist made her senior international debut at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka and has described going back to Japan as “a full circle moment”.
The 38-year-old has a total of 16 World Championships medals to her name as well as one world indoor title and eight Olympic medals. She secured her spot for Tokyo by finishing third in the 100m at the Jamaican Championships last month.
Sembo Almayew
Ethiopia’s Sembo Almayew made her major international debut as a 17-year-old at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon in 2022. Since then, the now 20-year-old steeplechase specialist has become a world U20 champion and an Olympic finalist, and those achievements contributed to her being named Women’s Rising Star at the World Athletics Awards 2024 in Monaco in December.
She dipped under nine minutes for the first time in Eugene earlier this month, that 8:59.90 performance placing her 15th on the world all-time list.
Prudence Sekgodiso
South Africa’s Prudence Sekgodiso stormed into the spotlight at the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing in March, winning the 800m title with a national short track record of 1:58.40.
The 23-year-old picked up from where she left off during the outdoor season, improving her PB to 1:57.16 in Ostrava in June and matching that mark to finish runner-up at the Diamond League meeting in Eugene.
