The World Athletics Championship is one of the largest sporting events on the planet. It’s the biggest championship in track and field, only eclipsed by the FIFA World Cup and the Summer Olympic Games. It attracts some of the top athletes in the sport, including Olympic champions and Wanda Diamond League winners. It also has a unique mascot that changes with each edition and the host city. This year, in Budapest, Hungary, it’s Youhuu the sheep, a symbol of the country that has 1.3 million of them.
The inaugural event was held in 1983 in Helsinki, Finland and since then it’s grown into a global showcase for athletics. The Championships is open to all the IAAF’s 213 member federations and is where many of the most significant and lasting world, area and national records have been set. The best athletes in the sport descend on one city for a week of action, culminating in the men’s and women’s individual titles being awarded. There’s been plenty of high drama over the years, from Carl Lewis’s triple gold to Femke Bol falling within sight of the line in the final of the mixed 4x400m relay.
British athletes are well represented at the next edition in Budapest. In the long distances, 2024 Olympic bronze medallists Keely Hodgkinson (Trevor Painter, Belgrave Harriers) and Jemma Reekie (Jon Bigg, Kilbarchan) are in action, as is former European Indoor champion and Commonwealth silver medallist Dina Asher-Smith (Blackheath & Bromley). Zharnel Hughes (Glen Mills, Shaftesbury Barnet) will double up in the 100m and 200m, as will fellow Briton Romell Glave (Michael Afilaka, Brighton Pheonix). Katarina Johnson-Thompson (Aston Moore, Liverpool) and Josh Kerr (Danny Mackey, Edinburgh) have received wild card selections to compete in the 800m.