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 13-21 September.
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. She has also secured two third-place finishes in the Wanda Diamond League this season, in Doha and Paris.
Sembo Almayew on her way to the world U20 steeplechase title in Lima (© Christel Saneh for World Athletics)
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.
Neeraj Chopra likes to make history on the global stage. At the Tokyo Games, he became the first Indian athlete to gain an Olympic gold in athletics when he won the javelin. Then, in Budapest, he became the first athlete from his nation to strike gold in any event at the World Athletics Championships as well as the first Asian athlete to win gold in the men’s javelin. The 27-year-old has already improved his national record to 90.23m this season, surpassing 90 metres for the first time during the Diamond League meeting in Doha.
Brazil’s Alison Dos Santos is the third-fastest 400m hurdler in history. With his South American record of 46.29, the 25-year-old sits behind only world record-holder Karsten Warholm and Rai Benjamin on the world all-time list. Dos Santos beat them both to the 2022 world title in Oregon, scene of that 46.29 area record – becoming the first South American to win a medal in the men’s 400m hurdles at the World Championships. He currently sits second on the season top list with the 46.65 he clocked to win at the Eugene Diamond League.
Alison dos Santos wins the 400m hurdles at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 (© Getty Images)
Swedish pole vault superstar Mondo Duplantis has broken the world pole vault record 12 times during his career so far. His first world record of 6.17m was set in Torun in 2020 and he has since improved it to 6.28m – that most recent record achieved at his home Diamond League meeting in Stockholm. The 25-year-old has multiple global titles to go with his records – world titles claimed in 2022 and 2023 as well as Olympic gold medals gained in Tokyo and Paris, and three world indoor honours from 2022, 2024 and 2025.
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.
Italy’s Mattia Furlani has rapidly risen through the ranks, following his European U18 title wins in the high jump and long jump in 2022 with European U20 long jump gold in 2023 and senior European silver in 2024. On the global stage, the 20-year-old is already an Olympic bronze medallist and a two-time world indoor medallist – most recently soaring to world indoor gold in Nanjing. His achievements in 2024 led to him being named Men’s Rising Star at the World Athletics Awards and so far in 2025 he has leapt 8.37m – putting his second on the year’s top list.
Prodigious Australian sprinter Gout Gout secured his first win in a senior international race in Ostrava last month and will want to maintain the momentum as he works towards Tokyo. The now 17-year-old clocked 20.04 in December to break the long-standing Oceanian 200m record and improve Usain Bolt’s world age-16 best. He improved to 20.02 in Ostrava and also has a wind-assisted 19.84 (2.2m/s) to his name, achieved when winning the Australian title in April. His CV already includes a major medal, as he secured 200m silver at the World U20 Championships in Lima last year.
Gout Gout at the World U20 Championships in Lima (© World Athletics 
Enzo Santos Barreiro)
Haruka Kitaguchi will be one of the home favourites going for gold inside the Japan National Stadium in September. After clinching javelin bronze at the 2022 World Championships in Oregon, the now 27-year-old threw 66.73m to get gold the following year in Budapest – a mark which remains the third-best winning performance of her career behind the 67.38m national record she set in Brussels in 2023. She went on to win Olympic gold in Paris and has a best of 64.63m so far this season – that throw getting her the win at the Diamond League meeting in Oslo.
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. The Olympic finalist also finished second in Rabat and third in Stockholm and sits second on this season’s top list.
Road to Tokyo