World Athletics Championships in Tokyo - Day 2 (14-09-2025)

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The idea was to go and watch the marathon in Akihabara, which is easy to reach from my hotel: the first passage is just after 10 km. But I can't get up that early, and when I take the underground, I see that the website already shoes the passage (there is an intermediate time named “Akihabara”). I go anyway, because from what I understand there should be a “return” passage and in any case there is a second lap. I arrive at the course, where it's hard to find a place: I have to stand in the second row (there's more space on the other side of the road, but it's difficult to get there). I don't know how long it will be before the athlete pass, but shortly afterwards I see the car marking the time go by, so we're almost there. First an American passes, followed by another one and a Japanese, to the enthusiasm of the crowd. After four athletes running alone, there is a group of about ten, including the favourites. After a couple of minutes, Lonedo, the only Italian, arrives in a group of five: she is ranked 29th. When I see the timing car pass on the other side of the road, I realise that the outward and return passages are actually very close together: the athletes pass by again, naturally in the same positions, but there is an opportunity to see them better.

When almost all had come for the outward passage and more than half for the return, I set off towards the stadium. I read that Fantini had made a throw that should make her confident of qualification and that Arese and Riva had qualified in the 1500: once I arrived, I read about the elimination of Bussotti and, above all, Ingebritsen and the other favourites.

At the entrance, the person checking tickets compliments me on my Osaka 2007 WorldChampionships t-shirt. This time, I am in the first deck, perhaps a bit too low, in the eighth row: in fact, you can’t see the finishing straight very well, as it’s blocked by the advertising board at trackside. There are more “Westerners” around me than yesterday evening (but still a minority); in my row there’s a group of Danes, whom I later discover are the family of a 1500 athlete, Hansen, who then arrives in tears (he finished second to last). I see Fantini’s third throw, which is less than the previous ones, but she closes her group in fifth place, so with a good margin. I start to worry when, after a few throws from the second group, she’s already eighth, but there aren’t many left who could overtake her; in fact, she finishes tenth. Two Americans are out (out of four): one with three fouls and one with modest throws.

The track is cleared to make way for the arrival of the Marathon: on the screen you see the first two, Ethiopian Assefa and Kenyan Jepchirchir, approaching. Next to them, they put up pictures of fans turned into manga characters. The two enter the stadium together and, until just over 100 metres from the finish, are still neck and neck; then the Kenyan gains a small lead and wins by two seconds. Two and a half minutes later comes a surprising third, a Uruguayan. Lonedo arrives earlier than expected, 20th: I can hardly believe it’s her. When a Costa Rican arrives, the announcer claims she’s the last, but in fact there are eight more after her. The session ends with the 100m hurdles heats: the Italian women do well, both qualifying directly.

In the afternoon I struggle to get going again. So I set off knowing I’ll see the races already underway: I hope at least to catch the third heat of the men’s 400, the first with an Italian (Scotti). I arrive just as it’s about to start, so I enter through the first door I find, taking advantage of the fact that nobody is checking that people go to their blocks. Scotti starts fast, then fades slightly: from my position I can’t see the placings well, it looks like fourth, but seeing the time of the first (43.90) I think he’ll be in a good spot for a fastest time slot, and maybe he’s set the Italian record. In fact, he’s third and the record stands by a good 0.30 seconds: 44.45! In his heat, Sito stays close to the defending champion Watson, but only because Watson is having a bad race; in the end, they finish in the last two places, with the Italian ahead. Then come the heats of the women’s event, with the Italian women both finishing fifth, not far from qualification, which was at 51.37, so not impossible.

While I was watching Scotti, I also saw Lando clear 2.16m, the only Italian I saw at that height, which everyone cleared on first attempt. At 2.21m the problems begin: all miss the first, then the second, with Tamberi, after getting hyped up with the help of crowd, seemingly flying high before hitting the bar with his heel. Makes you wonder how Fassinotti, who was left out, would have done. Who would have said a few years ago that we could play the football fan’s game, “the one who doesn’t play is always the best”. At least Sioli makes it on the third attempt, the others go out, Sottile by a whisker. Sioli clears 2.25m on the second attempt and I think that might be enough. After two attempts, nine have cleared it, so it seems almost done, but then it’s hard to understand what’s happening, the website isn’t working. Eventually, the announcer will declare that there are 13 left, so all are qualified.

The first final is the women’s discus. After the first two throws, by Altman and van Klinken, it seems likely the gold and silver are already decided, and so it is, though Altman will improve. The places behind are more contested, with third passing from Cuban Morales to Swedish Kamga and then back to the Cuban. In the confusion, I follow the fifth throw thinking it’s the sixth. There’s also the women’s long jump, with Italian regrets: I’d chosen my seat for that, and indeed the view is excellent. Here, too, the first jump seems decisive, with Davis’s 7.08m (who will later do 7.13m). The second jump, Mihambo’s, is greeted by the crowd as if it’s a great leap, but it’s only 6.60m: watching metric bar live, the jumps seem longer, so the crowd responds with murmurs even for merely decent jumps. The German will improve to 6.99m and win silver, but the surprise is Colombian Linares, who starts with 6.75m and reaches 6.92m, taking bronze.

The track events continue with the 100m semi-finals, first women’s, then men’s. Among the women, Jefferson already runs 10.73. Second fastest for Tina Clayton, third for Alfred, Richardson and Asher-Smith go through as fastest times. Dosso stays with the group only for the initial metres, then finishes sixth in 11.22. Among the men, Bednarek and Thompson finish together in 9.85, Seville does 9.86, Lyles “only” 9.92. Jacobs runs in the first and, after a poor start, closes up on the group, but never really contends for qualification. At least it’s his season’s best: 10.16. The final will have four Americans (intended as from the continent) and four Africans, no Europeans.

After the 100m semi-finals many leave, but I stay for the women’s 1500 semi-finals: for a while I’d planned my break to go to the toilet and grab a drink right after. Two tactical races: in the first, Sabatini loses ground on the third lap; in the second, Zenoni stays with the group and, after a series of elbows and jostling, finishes fourth and is in the final. In the break I miss the first two kilometres of the 10,000 (and a few long jumps). An ultra-tactical race, though with surges: the split at 3km is only a few seconds slower than the women’s race, and only after 6km does the pace dip below 3 minutes per kilometre. The crowd gets excited when the Japanese come to the front: they’ll do so twice. Only at the sixth kilometre does someone begin to lose contact and, on the last lap, there’s a group of 12, but without the Japanese. With 250 metres to go, the announcer wonders if there’ll be an Ethiopian sweep, but on the last bend, Europeans and Americans gain ground on Kejelcha, who was leading, and in the final sprint, Gressier overtakes him. It ends with two Europeans on the podium and three light-skinned athletes in the top five.

The highlight remains: the two 100m finals. The presentations are like a normal race, except for a theme short video: athletes already on the track, no light shows. In the women’s, a Jamaican gets out fast, but then Jefferson overtakes and pulls away, though the Jamaican holds onto second ahead of Alfred. I thought the Jamaican was Jackson, but after the finish I find out it’s Clayton. Jefferson 10.61, Clayton 10.76, Alfred 10.84. In the men’s, Tebogo starts before the starter’s gun even fires: after so many were forgiven in the preliminary rounds, this time disqualification is inevitable. They restart, and the two Jamaicans stay ahead from start to finish, while the race for third isn’t clear, at least from the stands. Although I’m very surprised, since in previous finals he always faded, this time I realise the winner is Seville, who beats Thompson and Lyles. A slow final compared to previous years: 9.89 is enough for a medal.

Compared to yesterday, the exit is a bit quicker, but there’s more of a queue for the metro. There I talk to my neighbour (who’s figured out I’m Italian from my painted cheeks) about the European Championships in Rome.

World Athletics Championships in Tokyo - Day 1 (13-09-2025)

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 I arrive in Tokyo, which shows few signs of the World Championship. I don't know if there were others on my flight travelling for this reason, but I don't think so. At the airport, I only see a couple of volunteers with signs offering information. I don't stop because I assume they are only for those involved in the event. I don't see any posters on the street either. But above all, at the underground station, there are no signs about the direction to the stadium and all the writing is in Japanese. The underground stops and doesn't start again: there are announcements, but they are always in Japanese. When Google also tells me “no service”, I resign myself to taking another line.

At the arrival stop, you start seeing signs of the World Championships: posters featuring the top athletes of the Japanese team and some of their successes in the from previous Championships. You meet a few people heading to the stadium, but not many—they’re already all there. The stadium is right next to the exit, but it’s Entrance A, mine is E, which is exactly halfway round. Fortunately, the walk is short because you can pass right underneath the stands: the “pre-filtering” is completely absent; I’ve never seen a large stadium where you can walk under the stands without showing your ticket. There’s no queue at the entrance, everyone’s already in, and you get through both the bag check and ticket check immediately (manual, the turnstiles are switched off).

To reach my section, there are three escalator ramps, taking you up to section 320, mine is 335. On the way, you see another crowded stadium, which I assume is for baseball, later I’ll have confirmation. 

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The stadium is wonderful: entering gives the impression of being in an indoor arena and the view is excellent. Above all, I’ve never seen shot put so well in such a big stadium. To think that four years ago it was empty… I had planned to miss the heats for the 3000m steeplechase—I needed to rest after the journey and jet lag. After the travel mishaps, though, I arrive just as the long jump qualifiers are ending their second attempt, the pole vault qualifiers have started, and three heats of the women’s 100m (out of seven) have already been run: luckily, Dosso is in the sixth heat. For a while, I don’t even know how the long jump and pole vault are going—the website isn’t working. I saw that Iapichino’s first jump went poorly, and the scoreboard shows the second wasn’t any better. I get there in time for her third: on the screen, it’s clear she’s out, and in the end, it’s even worse than it looked—6.32! And 6.60 would have been enough to go through.

My section, like almost all the rest of the stadium, is almost completely full; in my row, there are a couple of empty seats. Only on the opposite side, in the first and second deck (I’m in the third), are some sections half-empty. Next to me are two non-Asian girls: from their painted cheeks, I discover they’re New Zealanders. After a while, I remember we’ll be rivals in the shot put. In the row in front, there’s a group I’ll later find out to be Irish; everyone else nearby seems local.

The first track event I see is the fourth heat of the women’s 100m, with Alfred already pulling away halfway and finishing in 10.94, easing up at the end. Then comes the sixth heat, which Dosso (mentioned first by the announcer as the world silver medallist in the 60m) wins, beating athletes like Britain’s Hunt and America’s White. Meanwhile, in the pole vault, I see two of Oliveri’s three misses at 5.40; he finishes with no measure, while Bertelli clears 5.40 on first attempt, 5.55 on second, but at 5.70 doesn’t even attempt the first jump, and I don’t see the others. At 5.75, twelve remain and it ends there (they’d also scheduled 5.80).

Track events continue with the women’s 1500m heats, with only the top six qualifying. First Sabatini and then Zenoni control their heats, always among the leaders, while Cavalli loses contact on the last lap. Then come the men’s 100m heats, starting with a bang: in the first, the third runs 9.93 and the fourth 10.00 (top three and fastest losers go through). Those three will remain the fastest of the round, only Lyles will get close with 9.95. Jacobs starts poorly in his heat but manages to come third—he’ll be one of the slowest qualifiers.

And then it’s the first final of the day: men’s shot put. Walsh throws second and gets 21.58, followed by Crouser who looks better but only gets 21.41, then Fabbri seems slightly off and, indeed, after the first five he’s third, which already seems promising since all the throwers were favourites, and after the first round, he’s still third. In the second, Crouser takes the lead with 21.99, then Fabbri throws very long, right on the sector line, but it’s in: 21.83. His third attempt is even further, seems over 22, but this time it’s out of bounds. On the fourth throw, the surprise: instead of eight, ten athletes continue, dropping to eight at the fifth and six at the sixth. I knew they did this at the indoor Worlds but thought it was just for that occasion. On the fifth, Walsh throws 21.94—the New Zealanders next to me cheer, but Fabbri immediately ties it and stays second due to countback. Then Crouser improves with 22.34, avoiding winning the title with a mark that wouldn’t have enough to qualify at the US trials. The biggest surprise comes in the sixth round: Mexican Munoz, the only finalist I’d never heard of, after 21.29 and 21.50, improves again with 21.97 and moves into second place. The others don’t improve, so Fabbri gets bronze and Walsh fourth on countback. Disappointment for the New Zealanders: for a moment, I think of telling them a medal could arrive years later, with this athlete who came out of nowhere, but then I’m ashamed to think it.

Meanwhile, the women’s 10,000m had also taken place. Battocletti always among the leaders, usually in third: after a fast fourth and fifth kilometre, the leading group shrinks from seven to six, then five, with Battocletti the only non-African. From the seventh kilometre, the pace slows but the others don’t catch up. On the last lap, there are four left, at the final bend Chebet goes and Battocletti is the only one to follow: for a moment I'm illuded she might even overtake, but on the final straight the gap widens. Nadia takes silver, with yet another Italian record. Meanwhile, the crowd cheers for the home athlete who moved up positions, finishing sixth.

For 20 years, from 2003 to 2023, we hadn’t won three medals in one edition: today we won them in a single day! In the three worst editions, from 2013 to 2017, when every time we thought “I thought last time went badly until I saw this,” we won only two medals in total. The last event remains, the mixed relay: this time they introduce it normally, with the athletes already on the track and no light shows. Italy loses ground in the first leg and stays seventh, the USA maintain a lead over the group. In the final leg, the Netherlands have Bol and so become favourites for silver, which they win, with Belgium third in a sprint over Poland.

On the way out, there’s a queue because you can only go down a narrow staircase. I try another sector, but they’re all the same. Even at the metro there’s a crowd, but luckily more people are heading the other way. And tomorrow we set off at dawn for the Marathon.