World Athletics Championships 2025: Gout Gout qualifies, women’s pole vault final, Josh Kerr goes for gold and more – live | World Athletics Championships
Key events
Women’s pole vault final: Both Morris and Moon fail to clear 4.95m in their first attempt.
Women’s pole vault final: Slovenia’s Tina Sutej takes bronze after she fails to clear 4.85m, opting to not even jump in her final attempt. Sandi Morris and Katie Moon are now waiting to start their attempts on 4.90m.
Women’s pole vault final: Sandi Morris puts huge pressure on Katie Moon, clearing 4.85m, a season best, in her first attempt. Which of the two will win gold?
Men’s long jump final: Huge jump from China’s Yuhao Shi to take the lead with 8.33m. He is straight-faced after the jump but cracks a cheeky smile just as the camera pans away from him.
Miltiádis Tentóglou is under pressure as the defending champion. He has yet to clear what is needed and may not get all six jumps.
Women’s 400m hurdles: Semi-finals here we are! The first two of each heat will qualify to the final alongside the two other fastest times.
Gianna Woodruff wins the first semi-final in 52.66sec, surprising the US’s Jasmine Jones, who takes a season best of 53.01sec.
The defending champion Femke Bol wins the second semi-final in 52.31sec, jogging the final bit as Dalilah Muhammad takes second.
And in the third, the Olympic silver medallist Anna Cockrell wins in 53.28sec followed by Shiann Salmon with 54.03.
Women’s pole vault final: Amanda Moll fails to clear 4.75m at her third attempt and that’s her session done. Nothing separates Tina Sutej from Amálie Svabikova, both cleared 4.75m at their third attempt. The two American leaders Katie Moon and Sandi Morris cleared the height on their first attempt.
Photograph: Eloisa Lopez/Reuters
Michael Johnson’s Grand Slam Track organisation has denied the former American sprinter has pocketed $2m from the series while his athletes have gone unpaid, calling the speculation “categorically false” – and claimed he was facing financial losses himself.
Johnson is facing the prospect of legal action from athletes, agents and the suppliers who helped stage three GST meetings, with sources claiming they are owed as much as $19m (£13.9m). It is understood that two athletes claim they had to withdraw from buying a house when prize money was not paid, and many privately believe they will never receive their money.
Read the full story below.
Men’s 200m: The final heat is met with massive cheers for Japan’s Towa Uzawa, who qualifies in third with 20.39. Letsile Tebogo of Botswana crosses the finish line in first, and he has a little dance in the last 20m ahead of the Netherlands’s Xavi Mo-Ajok.
Men’s long jump final: The defending champion and double Olympic champion Miltiádis Tentóglou from Greece starts with 7.83m which he is not happy with. It makes way for Tajay Gayle from Jamaica who lands at 8.33m on his first attempt. Fantastic jump – he gets so much height!
Italy’s Mattia Furlani, only 20 years old, gets very far in the pit but his foot is over the block and it will not be measured. He won bronze at the Olympics last year and won the indoor title earlier this year.
Men’s 200m: Bryan Levell speeds out of the block and it is a perfect bend and the Jamaican hits an impressive 19.84sec finish, making it look easy. Gout Gout takes third with 20.23sec behind Makanakaishe Charamba of Zimbabwe.
Men’s 200m: Big cheers for Australia’s Gout Gout. Let’s see how the teenager handles the pressure. He has been likened to Usain Bolt, who is watching on in Tokyo.
Men’s 200m: An absolute stacked fourth heat. Noah Lyles, GB’s Zharnel Hughes, Andre De Grasse. The first two qualify respectively with 19.99sec and 20.07sec respectively. Christopher Taylor gets a personal best of 20.26sec.
Hughes keeps his interview short and sweet: “I’m ready, let’s go. That is all I got to say. Let’s go.”
Women’s pole vault final: The Moll twins both fail to clear 4.75m. Sandi Morris and Katie Moon, both of the US, currently lead the pack.
Men’s 2oom: Kenny Bednarek from the US wins that heat with 19.98sec with Nigeria’s Udodi Onwuzurike in second. Dambile, who was sweating moments ago thinking he got disqualified, makes the semi-finals in third.
Men’s 200m: OK, the green card comes out for South Africa’s Sinesipho Dambile. No infringement. We go again.
Men’s 200m: We get a false start in the third heat but it does not seem obvious and we are yet to see a replay …
Men’s 200m: The first hear saw Alexander Ogando of the Dominican Republic and Wayde van Niekerk of South Africa take the top two spots. A photo-finish was needed to confirm Switzerland’s Timothé Mumenthaler spot in third. A disappointing run from Robert Gregory of the US who finishes in fifth with 20.43sec and GB’s Toby Harries in seventh, who tells the BBC that he was capable of “running way faster than that” but the mixed relay took too much out of his tank.
Zimbabwe’s Tapiwanashe Makarawu wins heat two in 19.91sec and the United States’s Courtney Lindsey is right behind him with 19.95sec. Adrian Kerr from Jamaica takes third with 20.13sec.
Men’s triple jump: Qualification for the triple jump has finished and only two athletes, Algeria’s Yasser Mohammed Triki and Jamaica’s Jordan Scott cleared the 17.10m mark needed to qualify for Friday’s final. The other 10 advance by being the best of the rest.
Women’s pole vault final: Most of the contenders have cleared 4.65m, which is to be expected, including Olivia McTaggart of New Zealand and the US’s Moll twins.
Women’s 200m: The final heat sees GB’s Dina Asher-Smith win with 22.40sec, she looked very comfortable. Australia’s Torrie Lewis came second with a personal best and Spain’s Jael Bestue rounds out the top three.
Women’s pole vault final: New Zealand’s Eliza McCartney, who is a silver medallist at the indoor championships last year, has withdrawn with an injury.
Women’s 200m: Shericka Jackson, the two-time world champion, is the first non-American to win a heat, the Jamaican winning with a time of 22.33sec. It is a fantastic run from GB’s Amy Hunt at 22.57sec. Near the end of the race, she had a bit of a glance at Jackson, and slowed down, obviously conserving her energy for tomorrow.
Women’s 200m: McKenzie Long, another American, wins the third heat but she certainly is behind her countrywomen with a time of 22.51sec. Ashanti Moore of Jamaica and Germany’s Sophia Junk qualify alongside her.
In the fourth heat, 22.50sec is enough for the US’s Brittany Brown to win the heat ahead of GB’s Daryll Neita, who qualifies in third. Anthonique Strachan of the Bahamas comes in second.
Women’s 200m: Melissa Jefferson-Wooden speaks to BBC Sport after winning the first heat.
My legs feel like they were getting themselves back on the track. The 200m is a different feel to the 100m so it is about being smart.
My coach will probably tell me that I have burnt too much energy but I wanted to get a feel for it so that there is nothing foreign to me in the next few days.
I try to go out and execute every time I go out on the track. That is what I have been doing all year and it has been working.
Men’s javelin throw: Neeraj Chopra, the first Olympic champion in Athletics from India when he won gold in this stadium has qualified for the final with a throw of 84.85m. The commentators mention how popular he is in his home country with the 27-year-old having 9.3m Instagram followers – the most of any Athletics athlete.
Julian Weber also qualified with a throw of 87.21m.
Women’s 200m: Will we get and American 1-2-3 come the final? Maybe. Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, the 100m champion, finishes her heat in first in 22.24sec with countrywoman Thelma Davies finishing second and Ivory Coast’s Jessika Gbai taking third.
Women’s 200m: The first heat has US’s Anavia Battle, the four-time Diamond League winner and no surprise, she leads the pack, winning with heat with a time of 22.07sec, her season’s best. Ivory Coast’s Marie Josée Ta Lou-Smith and Greece’s Polyniki Emmanouilidou qualify alongside Battle.
Men’s and women’s 200m: Our first racing events are about to begin. Six heats of eight with the first three of each heat plus the six fastest times qualify to the semi-final. The Americans are expected to be quite dominant.
Men’s javelin throw – Group A: The first of the two groups have begun, which contains the world No 1 Julian Weber and the world No 2 Neeraj Chopra. The automatic qualifying mark is 84.50m or at least the best 12 qualify to the final.
Men’s triple jump: But first let us get to our first event of the evening session. Two groups of 18 will compete in qualifiers. The automatic qualifying mark is 17.10m or at least the best 12 qualify to the final on Friday.
The world No 1 Andy Díaz Hernández is in Group B and his season and personal best is 17.80m. The Italian won bronze at the Paris Olympics and won gold at the 2025 Nanjing Indoor Championships.
Men’s 1500m: And later today, GB’s Josh Kerr will be hoping to defend his 1500m title – a title he is confident is his.
I’ve done it before. I know how to do it. I’m in a better place. I’m more excited. I’ve already got one of those gold medals in my safe. When I say easier, I’m not saying the race is going to be easier. I’m not saying the competition is worse. I’m saying that I know how to do it.
This training camp has been pretty hard. I’m so excited to go out and race those guys over 1500m. It’s probably going to be the easiest thing I’ve done over the last six weeks.
Kerr will be competing against GB’s Jake Wightman (a former world champion) and Neil Gourley (silver medal in indoor championships).
Women’s 400m: Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone ran one of the fastest times in history to qualify for the women’s 400m final and the American is targeting a 40-year record.
The American ran 48.29sec in her semi-final on Tuesday – smashing her personal best by nearly half a second – and then promising to run faster in the final on Thursday. “This race definitely gives me confidence for the final,” she said. “I didn’t expect to run this fast today. And I still have more to show.”
Read more on McLaughlin-Levrone’s chances and what to can expect from the only three-time Olympic champion in the 1500m, Faith Kipyegon.
Men’s 200m: The talk on everyone’s lips today is Gout Gout, the Australian wonder-kid who has emerged as sprinting’s best young talent.
His heat today pits him against five semi-final contenders aged 23 or under, including three that have run quicker than him. The teenager must match or beat his fastest 200m times to make sure his World Athletics Championships debut lasts more than just today’s heats.
Today’s schedule
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11.05am BST / 7.05pm JST – men’s triple jump – qualification
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11.10am BST / 7.10pm JST – men’s javelin throw – qualification group A
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11:25am BST / 7.25pm JST – women’s pole vault – final
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11.30am BST / 7.30pm JST – women’s 200m – heats
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12.15pm BST / 8.15pm JST – men’s 200m – heats
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12.45pm BST / 8.45pm JST – men’s javelin throw – qualification group B
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12.49pm BST / 8.49pm JST – men’s long jump – final
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1.03pm BST/ 9.03pm JST – women’s 400m hurdles – semi-final
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1.30pm BST/ 9.30pm JST – men’s 400m hurdles – semi-final
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1.57pm BST / 9.57pm JST – women’s 3000m steeplechase – final
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2.20pm BST / 10.20pm JST – men’s 1500m – final
Preamble
Hello and welcome to night five of the 2025 World Athletics Championships. It is another jam-packed evening session in Tokyo with four gold medals to be awarded today as quite a few athletes also eye world records. Plus will Great Britain win their first medal today?
The action starts at 11.05am BST / 7.05pm JST. Let’s go!