The biggest stars of track and field will battle it out for world titles over nine days of action as the World Athletics Championship gets under way in Tokyo. Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson and fellow Paris 2024 medallists Josh Kerr, Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Matthew Hudson-Smith are among GB’s podium hopes in the individual events. But there will also be a team challenge as the men’s and women’s relays take centre stage.
American Noah Lyles is the man to beat in the men’s 100m after winning silver in Paris and claiming a third straight global title in 2022. He will look to make it four in a row here with US teammate Christian Coleman the other big threat.
In the men’s 1500m, defending world champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen failed to advance from the heats after an injury-marred build-up while Olympic champion Cole Hocker was controversially disqualified. GB’s George Mills was eighth but looks on course for a top-four finish while pole vaulter Kurtis Marschall and middle-distance specialist Jess Hull both have a good chance of bronze.
Elsewhere, heptathlete Nafi Thiam is the favourite to win a sixth world crown. She takes on fellow two-time world champion Veronica Campbell-Roberts of Jamaica and Belgium’s Olympic bronze medallist Elizabeth Ollerengoe in the final.