World Championships just days away
Elizabeth Egan | Sep 09, 2025
The 20th World Athletics Championships will start in Tokyo this Saturday, 13th September. More than 2200 athletes, representing almost 200 countries, will compete for 49 World titles across the nine days of competition.
Among them will be 28 Irish athletes, 21 of whom have qualified in individual events, along with teams in the Women’s 4x400m the Mixed 4x400m relays.
Irish participants
While medals are not expected, the Irish team boasts plenty of experience, including World University Games Champion and World Indoor medallist Kate O'Connor (Heptathlon), and her fellow European indoor medallists Mark English (800m) and Sarah Healy (1500m).
Andrew Coscoran made the semi-final of the 1500m at the Olympic in Tokyo in 2021 and Cathal Doyle made the semi-final in Tokyo last year. Both will be looking to advance beyond the heats. Coscoran is entered for the 5000m, his first major championship at this distance, alongside Brian Fay and Darragh McElhinney, the two fastest Irishmen ever at the distance.
This will be English's 7th World Championships. He will be joined in the 800m by Cian McPhillips, who'll be competing at his first. Laura Nicholson is another new to competing at this level, and she'll be taking on her first major championship alongside Healy and Sophie O'Sullivan in the women's 1500m.
Efrem Gidey will be competing in the 10,000m, also his first taste of World Championship competition, after breaking the Irish Record and winning the European 10,000m Cup earlier this year.
Sarah Lavin (100m hurdles) ran a National Record of 12.62 to finish 5th in the semi-finals in Budapest two years ago. She'll hope to get somewhere close to that form when she takes to the track next week.
Sharlene Mawdsley and Sophie Becker are both due to race in both the mixed and women's 4x400m relays, but are also on the startlist for the 400m. The European Championship qualification time - 51.20 - should either hit it, would be a welcome bonus heading into the winter.
Oisin Lane, another at his first global senior championships, will open the Irish account in the 35km walk, the very first competition of the Championships in the early hours of Saturday morning. 2021 Olympian David Kenny will be competing at his third World Championships in the 20km walk.
Fionnuala McCormack, Ireland's most capped female athlete and a five-time Olympian, hasn't competed at a World Athletics Championships since her steeplechase days in 2011. This time she'll be competing in the Marathon. Irish record holder Peter Lynch and former record holder Hiko Tonosa will contest the men's marathon.
Having finished 13th in Budapest and 14th in Paris, O'Connor will be looking to break into a global top-10 for the first time. In the form of her life this season, the Irish record again stands danger.
Nicola Tuthill is edging ever closer to Eileen O'Keeffe's national Hammer record, and that's the sort of mark that would see her make the final. Multi-events aside, Ireland have not had a field event finalist at global level since Deirdre Ryan finished 5th in the High Jump at the World Championships in 2011.
Irish Shot Put record holder Eric Favors, now a regular at this level, completes the individuals.
Rachel McCann, Jack Raftery, Conor Kelly and Cillín Green join Mawdsley and Becker on the Mixed 4x400m relay squad, while McCann, Cliodhna Manning, Michelle Duggan and Jenna Breen complete the women's 4x400m relay squad.
Following the action
To help you follow the action, we’ve put together an Irish-specific timetable, which we will update throughout the competition as Irish athletes qualify through to semi-finals and finals of their respective events.
We’ll also keep you up to date with all the ways you can watch and follow the action.
Field-a-Team: Tokyo
If you’d like to get more involved with the action in Toyko, you might consider taking part in Field-a-Team: Tokyo, our fan-engagement competition.
Unlike traditional prediction competitions, athletes in your team will score points simply by finishing in the top 8, and you just have to predict the medallists in 14 events, not all 49.
The winner will be the player whose team has accumulated the most points. There will be no prizes, except for the honour of being the first TrackAthletes World Championship Field-a-Team winner!
Other news
Irish teams have been selected for two other global events that start later this month. Thirty-three athletes are due to compete at the World Mountain Running and Trail Running Championships in Canfranc, Spain, from 25th to 28th September. They’ll be led by seasoned internationals Zak Hanna and Sarah McCormack.
Three Irish athletes will compete at the World Para Athletics Championships in New Delhi, India, from 27th September to 5th October. Three Irish athletes have been selected. Orla Comerford (100m and 200m) and Greta Streimikyte (1500m) will compete in T13 events, while Lana Sutton (100m and 200m) will compete in the T38 category.
Qualification for next summer's European Championships and Commonwealth Games has already begun. We'll keep these up to date right until the close of qualification next summer.
As we wrap up our first track season, the TrackAthletes team would love your feedback on the site. We are very grateful for all the generous donations we received over the past few weeks. If you didn’t get a chance to donate, and would like to do so, you can do so here.