Track and field officials awarded the 2025 world athletics championships to Tokyo. This means the runners, jumpers, and throwers will be back at the home of last year's Olympics where they competed in front of mostly empty stands. The last time Tokyo hosted the event was back in the year 1991.
The World Athletics Council awarded the championships in a bidding contest. The participants in the bid also included Nairobi, Kenya, Silesia, Poland, and Singapore.
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said it was a close vote, but Japan won on the strength of, among other things, “human resources” available in Tokyo to put on the event and strong commercial partnerships.
He did not rule out the possibility of the track's marquee event someday making it to Kenya or another country in Africa — a continent that has never held the event.
“It is really important that we work together with Africans to make sure that their time comes, and their time comes when it's right,” Coe said.
Japan had spent more than $1.4 billion to build the stadium for the Olympics. The event was postponed by a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic and was held last summer under restrictions.
Sydney McLaughlin and Karsten Warholm each have broken world records in their 400-meter hurdle finals at Tokyo. Warholm ran in 45.94 seconds and McLaughlin finished in 51.46 but broke that record earlier this year (51.41) in Eugene.
Elaine Thompson-Herah finished the 100 in 10.61 seconds to break Florence Griffith-Joyner's 33-year-old Olympic record.
This year's world championships will begin on Friday at Hayward Stadium in Eugene. The event was also pushed back one year because of the pandemic. Next year's games will be held in Budapest, Hungary.
Coe said the losing cities expressed interest in the next round of bidding, for the 2027 and 2029 championships.
World Athletics also awarded its cross country championships to Medulin, Croatia in 2024, and Tallahassee, Florida in 2026.
(Inputs from PTI)
