World Athletics Championships in Tokyo - Day 4 (16-09-2025)

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This time, the programme starts right away with an Italian, Lazzaro in the 800 metres heats, so I mean to be there since the beginning and I'm confident I'll make it. On the underground, I meet a group of Jamaicans, and this time you can already feel the World Championships atmosphere on the journey. At the arrival stop, there are two staff members with megaphones making announcements, but only in Japanese. I waste precious time getting something to drink, having forgotten my water bottle, and so I realise that once again, despite having less distance to cover inside the stadium, being in the first deck, I will see the races already underway. In fact, I arrive just as the first 800m heat has finished. I then read that Lazzaro came second to last.

My seat is a huge disappointment: I wonder what made me choose the first deck, paying almost three times as much. I had chosen the spot for the high jump, but the sector is covered by the hammer cage. Yes, in the end you can see the uprights, but you can't really see the run-up. Even for the triple jump, you can see the athletes at the start well enough, but you can't get a sense of the distance, and only from one runway can you see the take-off and get an idea whether it’s valid or not. My block is full, but many others are not: you can see the difference with the holidays (yesterday was also a holiday in Japan), the upper half of the third deck is almost completely empty and even in the first deck there are plenty of empty seats, especially in the second bend (opposite the high jump sector).

I watch the qualifications from the start: immediately many favourites qualify directly: Perez, Povea, Lafond, Rojas (unrecognisable with long hair). For the Italians, you have to wait a bit: Derkach jumps first and fouls, then Saraceni, whose jump I miss, but I see she does 13.82. It probably won’t be enough, but it’s encouraging. In fact, at the start of the second round, she’s already out, but after a foul at the second attempt (like Derkach, who will finish with 13.69) she gets to the third jump still just 4 cm from qualification. The jump, from what I can see from my position, looks pretty long, but it’s a foul. The last jump from the Turkish athlete Danismaz, who was previously out due to countback, will reduce regret by moving qualification up to 14.00.

Meanwhile, the 800 heats have continued. Tecuceanu stays at the back the whole time, I keep hoping he’ll start and come back, but he only does so a little at the end and finishes fifth. Pernici, on the other hand, stays in the pack, and on the last bend seems to be fading, but in the home straight recovers to second place, just behind Wanyoni. Then come the 110m hurdles semi-finals: I barely watch the first as I’m waiting for Saraceni’s jump, it’s won in 13.27. The second is Simonelli’s: he starts well, then loses ground and in the last 2-3 hurdles makes up some. They’re all close together, I hope he’s at least third and in position for a best time spot. Instead, he’s fourth, with the same time as third (13.22), but for now he would be through. The third is the most waited for by the crowd, because of Muratake, who finishes second. Seeing the winner’s time, 13.12, I realise Simonelli is almost certainly out and in fact the third does 13.19, the fourth also 13.22, but goes through on thousandths. In the end, Simonelli is out by 3 thousandths. Holloway sinks, finishing sixth and last.

With the 800 heats over, the high jump final can begin, which, after Zenoni’s disqualification and Simonelli’s failure to qualify, is the only one left with an Italian. It starts at 2.20 and already 5 fail the first attempt and one (Beckford) goes out. Already at 2.24, only 5 clear it at the first try and Sioli also misses, but on the second attempt, after hyping himself up with the crowd like Tamberi, he clears it with a good margin. When the Japanese Akamatsu also clears it on his second go, a child from the next block comes over to give me a high five. Three are out, nine remain and Sioli is not last, so unless everyone but him clear 2.28, he’ll be in the top 8. In the end, everyone except him and the Japanese do clear it, so they’re joint eighth: three at the first attempt, one (Woo) at the second, and the other three at the third. And with that, it's nine top-eight finishes: when we used to get that in an entire World Championships, it didn't even seem bad. You can already tell it will finish after the track events are over. At 2.31, everyone misses the first attempt, at the second Woo and, surprisingly, Stefela clear it; at the third, Kerr, after hyping himself up Tamberi-style, pulls out a splendid jump and clears it with plenty to spare. Doroshchuk also manages it, though he makes the bar wobble. So we get to the end of the track events with four at 2.34, all of whom have made at least one miss.

The other field event was the men's hammer. I can see the cage very well, less so the landings, especially those over 80 metres – I can’t really tell how far beyond they are. This time the first throw isn’t decisive, in fact it’s a foul (by Kokhan), but right after come Halasz’s 81 metres and Katzberg’s 82. But surprisingly, after the first throw, it’s the German Hummel who leads with 82.77. On the second, Katzberg sets things straight with 84.70: a championship record. Suddenly, the world record, which dates back to when I’d just come of age, doesn’t seem so unbreakable. Halasz and Kokhan will also go over 82 metres, finishing third and fourth respectively: I remember a competition with seven over 80 metres (Osaka 2007), but never with four over 82.

The track events continued with the women's 400 semi-finals, first the women, then the men. In the first women's semi, Paulino slows down too soon, loses first place and holds on to second by just 0.05 seconds (she wouldn’t have been a non-automatic qualifier), in the last McLaughlin eases up a bit at the finish and still runs 48.29. Here too, a record dating back to when I was actually underage seems within reach. With 49.88 you’re out of the final. In the second men’s semi, Scotti stays with the leaders until the second bend, then loses a bit but finishes fifth, first of the second group. The time is 44.77, which was the Italian record only three months ago. Incredible 43.61 for the winner, from Botswana. In the last, the crowd gets excited for Nakajima, who finishes second, beating Samuonga, the two Americans and Hudson-Smith, all eliminated. The final will have only one American and three from Botswana.

It’s time for the track finals. It starts with the women’s 1500: 300 metres from the end there are three Kenyans and Hull, in the last bend Kipyegon sprints away, Hull tries to follow but is overtaken by Ewoi and just about saves third place. In the post-race interview, the winner remembers winning in 2021 without a crowd. It ends with the 110 hurdles: Tinch ahead of the Jamaicans, Muratake tries to get in the mix but finishes fifth.

As I said, the high jump remains, with four athletes still in the race. Unlike yesterday, though, most of the crowd starts to leave. Only Woo and Kerr clear 2.34, both on the third attempt. They go up to 2.36: Woo misses, Kerr clips the bar with his calf but it stays up. The Korean saves his last two attempts for 2.38 and misses them, Kerr celebrates and everyone, myself included, begins to leave without waiting to see if he’ll go on jumping. He doesn’t.

On the way out, I check my seat for tomorrow, also in the first deck: it looks like a great spot for the long jump. I run into two Italian athletes, whom I don’t recognise straight away, but one looked like Saraceni. There’s much less of a queue, even for the underground.

In the morning, I’d been to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. There was a World Championships exhibition, but it was closed. On the other hand, there were some memorabilia in the observatory as well.