Tokyo 2025 World Athletics Championships in Numbers: Records, Firsts, and Historic Finishes

Among the debutants were St Lucia, Samoa, and Uruguay, each winning their first-ever World Championships medal. Julien Alfred of St Lucia took silver in the women’s 200m, Alex Rose claimed bronze in the men’s discus throw for Samoa, and Julia Paternain secured a historic bronze in the women’s marathon for Uruguay. Meanwhile, Alphonce Simbu earned Tanzania’s first-ever gold medal by winning the men’s marathon.

A total of 36 defending champions failed to defend their title while 13 managed to win another one. The most number of defending champions failing to win title happened in the 2001 edition when only five out of 41 won it again making it is most unpredictable World Championships till date.

Five areas won gold medals: Africa – 10 golds from 3 countries, Europe – 12 golds from 8 countries, NACAC – 22 golds from 5 countries, Oceania – 3 golds from 2 countries, South America – 2 golds from 2 countries with hosts Asia missing out on a World title.

Championships Records Rewritten

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone of the USA clocked 47.78 seconds in the 400m, breaking Jarmila Kratochvilova’s 1983 record of 47.99 seconds. (AP Photo)

Tokyo 2025 saw eight championship records broken and one equalled, making it the edition with the second highest number of new records in the 21st century, just behind the 2022 Eugene championships that witnessed nine new Championship records.

Notably, the women’s 400m and 800m records, long-standing since 1983, were both shattered this year. Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone of the USA clocked 47.78 seconds in the 400m, breaking Jarmila Kratochvilova’s 47.99 seconds. Kenya’s Lilian Odira broke the 800m record with a time of 1:54.62, narrowly bettering Kratochvilova’s 1:54.68.

With these two records broken, the oldest standing championship records now date back to 1987, including women’s shot put, long jump, high jump, discus throw, and heptathlon.

A new kind of sweep

Usually, World Championships witness podium sweeps in some events. Out of 24 editions, 17 have witnessed podium sweeps in multiple events and Tokyo is one of the seven editions to not witness any podium sweep. However, Kenyan women athletes swept two categories of races this time. They won all the gold medals in middle and long distance running.

Lilian Odira (800m), Faith Kipyegon (1500m), Beatrice Chebet (5000m and 10000m, and Peres Jepchirchir (Marathon). In 3000m steeplechase, it was another Kenyan Faith Cherotich who won the gold medal making it a complete sweep.

Smallest winning margins

Tanzania’s Alphonce Felix Simbu, bottom, crosses the finish line ahead of Germany’s Amanal Petros shared a timing of 2:09:47 with the winning gap being 0.03s, closest ever in history. (AP Photo)

For the first time in the history of the Championships, a marathon was decided by less than one second. Both Alphonce Simbu and Amanal Petros of Germany shared a timing of 2:09:47 with the winning gap being 0.03s, closest ever in history and closer than the men’s 100m final this year.

Jimmy Gressier of France won the closest 10000m final of the World Championships history with a difference of 0.06. The previous closest finish was all the way back in 1983 when Alberto Cova won the title with a margin of 0.14.
In the men’s 1500m, Issac Nader won a historic gold medal for Portugal with a winning margin of 0.02 which was the smallest in the history of the event at the World Championships.

Botswana’s winning margin of 0.07 in the men’s 4x400m relay and Geordie Bemaish’s historic win in the men’s 3000m Steeplechase with the same margin are the second smallest margin in their respective events.

Many firsts of Tokyo 2025

Botswana became the first-ever African nation to win the men’s 4x400m title defeating defending Champions USA. Neeraj Chopra missed out on a podium in an event that he participated for the first time since September 2018, finishing eighth in the men’s javelin final. This was the first time in the history of World Championships that a European thrower failed to make it to the podium of the event.

Despite being the sprint powerhouse globally, for the first time ever in the World Championships history, Jamaica finished 1-2 in the men’s 100m final with Oblique Seville and Kishane Thompson taking the honours.

Farewell to a legend

Popularly known as ‘Pocket Rocket’, Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce has a distinction of wearing the bib number that has won the most gold medals. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

Jamaican sprinter Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce ended her athletics career with a total of 17 World Championships medal finishing behind Allyson Felix of USA (20 medals) on the all-time list winning the relay silver medal with her team.

Popularly known as ‘Pocket Rocket’, Fraser-Pryce has a distinction of wearing the bib number that has won the most gold medals. The bib number 510 has won a total of six gold medals with Fraser-Pryce winning five of them. She wore the bib in the 2013 edition when she swept the sprint arena with three gold and then she got it again in 2015 edition where she won two gold medals.

The only other athlete to win the World title with bib number 510 is triple jumper Philips Idowu of Great Britain who won the gold medal in the 2009 edition.