2025 World Championships Daily Dispatch #5: Ain't Over 'Til It's Over

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If the last few years in the 1500m has taught us anything, it’s to expect the unexpected. And 2025 has been no different.

Each round of the World Championships has provided its own crazy plot twists, from Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Azeddine Habz getting knocked out in the prelims to Cole Hocker’s controversial DQ in the semis to Josh Kerr pulling up midway through the final with a calf injury. It almost seems like high expectations have become something of a curse in this event, where the more likely you are on paper to win, the crueler your fate will be.

Between an unusual field and a slow early pace, the door was opened in the final lap for Isaac Nader, Jake Wightman, and Reynold Cheruiyot to upset the form charts and kick their way to the podium. Nader had won a Diamond League race in similar manner earlier this season but was far from a favorite, with +6000 odds on betting platforms heading into the race. Wightman came within 0.02 seconds of replicating his feat from 2022 after three years of injury-related adversity, but the ultimate outcome was that, for the seventh championship in a row, a new global champion was crowned.

The steeplechase final right before it was more predictable in terms of the players involved, but nevertheless involved a surprise or two. First it was Peruth Chemutai, the 2021 Olympic champ and 2024 silver medalist, who tumbled to the ground earlier in the race and was knocked out of contention. Then things seemed to be proceeding according to form otherwise, with Winfred Yavi leading Paris bronze medalist Faith Cherotich and 2022 World champ Norah Jeruto into the final lap, but the last water jump changed everything for everyone. Yavi had a rough one but stayed on her feet, which opened the door for Cherotich to claim her first gold in a championship record 8:51.59. Yavi hung on for silver, but the final medal was the product of true chaos as both Jeruto and Doris Lemngole struggled over the water pit, which opened the door for Ethiopian Sembo Almayew to snag third.

Not every event concluded as unexpectedly as as the steeple and the 1500m, however. The first rounds of the 200m went according to form, with four Americans advancing on the women’s side and all the favorites, including World champ Noah Lyles and Olympic champ Letsile Tebogo, cruising through on the men’s. The 400m hurdles semifinals set up a pair of historic clashes between Femke Bol and Dalilah Muhammad, as well as Karsten Warholm, Rai Benjamin, and Alison dos Santos.

The field events rewarded consistency as Katie Moon picked up her third straight World title with a season’s best 4.90m in the pole vault and Italian Mattia Furlani concluded a stellar 2025 season with his best effort yet, an 8.39m victory in the long jump. It just goes how show how much of a roller coaster Tokyo has been so far that the field events going according to form feels like as much of a surprise as, well, a surprise.

You can listen to Mac Fleet, Eric Jenkins, Mitch Dyer, Chris Chavez, and more unpack the craziness of day 5 on all the events to come with our reaction show live from Tokyo, as well as daily Good Morning Track and Field shows with Aisha Praught-Leer tuning in from home. You can also catch up with all our athlete interviews over on the CITIUS MAG YouTube channel, and subscribe to make sure you don’t miss any of the action.

Race Of The Day: Men’s 1500m

It’s not unreasonable to say that no one could’ve predicted this podium. That’s not to say that Isaac Nader, Jake Wightman, and Reynold Cheruiyot aren’t all medal-worthy contenders in their own rights, just that the series of circumstances that had to stack on top of one another to make this particular outcome happen was highly improbable.

Without Jakob Ingebrigtsen to assume the role of pacemaker, the field hit 400 meters in a relatively pedestrian 59.45, and each successive second that the tempo lagged injected a little extra variability into the last lap. No one saw Kerr’s untimely calf injury coming: the Scotsman is remarkably consistent in global finals, with his lowest finish of the decade being sixth in 2022. And heading into the last lap, one measly second separated the top 12 contenders.

Nader and Wightman are both known for their footspeed, and the race was set up perfectly for them to take advantage. In particular, Wightman has looked like a rejuvenated runner throughout these championships after missing the last two British teams with injuries and changing coaches in 2024. Nader won the Oslo Dream Mile earlier this season and has finished near the front of a few other Diamond Leagues, but this was still only the second global final of his career and doesn’t have the shiny PBs of some of his competitors.

But that didn’t matter on the homestretch, when Niels Laros looked vulnerable for the first time in months, eventually fading to fifth, and Nader swung into lane three for the first time after riding the rail to power past both Cheruiyots and nip Wightman at the line by 0.02 seconds. Even though this is an event where fans often feel passionately about their favorite athlete, we can all appreciate the fact that, when the dust settled, the crazy ride was fun for everyone.

Athletes Of The Day: Katie Moon and Sandi Morris

There are few guarantees in life: death, taxes, and this dynamic duo.

For the last decade, American pole vault powerhouses Katie Moon and Sandi Morris have been racking up medals with incredible consistency on the international circuit. You’ve gotta go back to 2015 to find a World or Olympic podium without one or both of them on it, and for the second time in the last four seasons, Moon and Morris went 1-2 in the final.

Good pole vaulters can have fairly long careers by track and field standards, but it’s worth noting and applauding that Moon and Morris, at 34 and 33 years old, respectively, are still producing their best stuff on a daily basis. Both vaulters jumped their season’s best in the World final, with Moon becoming the only woman in the world over 4.90m outdoors this year. Moon has had a season’s best of 4.85m or higher every year going back to 2019, and Morris has cleared 4.80m annually going back to 2016.

Katie Moon now has three straight World titles, and this one is all hers after splitting the gold in 2023 with Nina Kennedy. You’ve gotta feel a bit for Morris, though, who now has five silver medals on the World/Olympic medal and no golds (although she has two World Indoor titles). In such a variable event, where a hair’s breadth of error or a poorly-timed breeze can make a career-altering difference, it’s so impressive that both women have seemed like a virtual lock for podium spots every time they don the Team USA uniform.

Photo Of The Day

Dalilah Muhammad and Femke Bol, two of the three fastest women all-time in the 400m hurdles, race side-by-side in the semifinal. Both advanced to the final where the 35-year-old Muhammad will compete in her final World Championship.

Social Moment Of The Day

The track and field Internet has been flooded with jokes after Karsten Warholm’s “dick-measuring contest” comments and Rai Benjamin’s reaction, above, after the 400m hurdles semifinal. We can’t wait to see how they measure up against Alison dos Santos in the final.

What’s Coming Next

All eyes will be on the one-lappers as Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone chases history against Marileidy Paulino and Salwa Eid Naser in the 400m final. On the men’s side, Botswana will try and deliver on the hype created by their three finalists and Jacory Patterson will carry the American hopes as a sudden underdog.

The ease of a prelim round turns into the brutality of a semifinal in the men’s and women’s 200ms and the men’s 800ms, as the women’s 5000m and 800m heats kick off the session. The latter will be only our third look of the year at Olympic champ Keely Hodgkinson, who spent most of the season injured but still returned to the circuit in stellar form. A few more weeks of healthy training could put her in the position for something really special.

Speaking of injury comebacks, Yulimar Rojas’s return to the runway will continue in the women’s triple jump final, and a battle royale will unfold between Anderson Peters, Julian Weber, Neeraj Chopra, and Arshad Nadeem in the javelin final. It’s a short program tomorrow, but it’ll be a super fun one.

Until next time — Catch up on anything you may have missed on the CITIUS MAG YouTube channel, Twitter, and Instagram and don’t forget to subscribe to the CITIUS MAG newsletter for more updates on the 2025 World Athletics Championships.