- World record-holder Yulimar Rojas entered to defend her title in first triple jump competition since 2023
- Leyanis Perez-Hernandez tops world list in 2025
- Thea LaFond, Shanieka Ricketts and Jasmine Moore on the hunt for more major medals
From 2017 to 2023, the women’s triple jump was dominated by Venezuela’s Yulimar Rojas. The world record-holder is entered to defend her title at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25, but the past two years have not gone to plan for the eight-time global gold medallist.
Rojas claimed a record fourth world triple jump crown in Budapest thanks to a last-gasp leap beyond 15 metres, but she was unable to compete at last year’s Olympic Games in Paris due to an achilles injury. She was also forced to withdraw from her planned comeback meeting last month, but seems determined to line up in Tokyo – in what would be her first triple jump competition since winning her third Wanda Diamond League title in Eugene in September 2023.
Her return is highly anticipated, as it would see her compete back in the stadium in which she won her Olympic title in 2021, getting gold in Tokyo with a then world record of 15.67m.
But right now, her competitive form is unknown, and while Rojas sits 62cm ahead of her rivals when it comes to personal bests – her world record now standing at 15.74m from 2022 – it’s Cuba’s Leyanis Perez-Hernandez who leads this year’s world top list.
Perez-Hernandez, who claimed world bronze in Budapest, jumped 14.93m to win the world indoor title in Nanjing in March – a mark just five centimetres off her PB set in San Salvador in 2023. She has also jumped 14.92m and 14.91m outdoors this year and has achieved five of the top six winning marks. Her victories have included Diamond League meeting wins in Oslo and Brussels and at the Diamond League Final in Zurich.
Her compatriot Liadagmis Povea has a PB – set in 2021 – that matches Perez-Hernandez’s 2025 best and Povea sits second on the world top list with 14.84m jumped in Brescia in July. The Olympic fourth-place finisher – who finished one spot ahead of her compatriot in Paris – will be looking to go at least one place better and make the podium in Tokyo.
Three other athletes with 15-metre-plus PBs star on the entry list, and they filled the podium places in Paris.
Thea LaFond became Dominica’s first Olympic medallist when she got gold in Paris with a national record of 15.02m. Jamaica’s Shanieka Ricketts secured silver and USA’s Jasmine Moore claimed bronze, five days before earning a medal of the same colour in the long jump. They will all clash again in Tokyo.
Ricketts is second on the world rankings behind Perez-Hernandez, with her results including Diamond League wins in Doha and Rome, where she finished ahead of LaFond and Perez-Hernandez, respectively. Her season’s best of 14.64m was set in Rome.
Moore also has a Diamond League win to her name, but that came in the long jump in Silesia. She was third in the triple jump in Oslo and Brussels and has a season’s best of 14.68m, set when retaining her US title. Tokyo will be the first global outdoor championship in which Moore has focused on a single event – rather than doubling in the long jump and the triple jump – since the Tokyo Olympics.
LaFond, who added her Olympic title to the world indoor gold she won in 2024, has a season’s best just two centimetres off that mark – 14.62m. She was second in Doha and finished fourth at the Diamond League Final.
Others to watch include Jamaica’s three-time NCAA gold medallist Ackelia Smith, Slovenia’s Neja Filipic and Germany’s Caroline Joyeux, who has added 68cm to her PB this year, surpassing 14 metres for the first time in Essen in June, when she soared 14.45m. She has broken the barrier in three competitions since, her performances including 14.42m in Madrid.
Jess Whittington for World Athletics