YEARENDER-Athletics: 53 countries win medals in World Athletics Championships

World Athletics Championships

A record number of nations won medals at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, with a total of 53 countries making it on to the medal table at the 20th edition of the event.

The previous record of 46 was set in Osaka in 2007 and equalled in Budapest two years ago, with Samoa, Saint Lucia and Uruguay winning their first ever World Championships medals at this year's competition.

Mondo Duplantis broke the pole vault world record for the 14th time with a jump of 6.30 metres on his third attempt as he secured a third straight world title.

The gold medal was already secure for the American-born Swede when he had the bar raised a centimetre higher than the record height of 6.29m he managed in Budapest last month.

Noah Lyles of the U.S. scorched to a fourth successive world 200 metres gold. He delivered his trademark drive to the line to triumph in 19.52 seconds, pipping compatriot and perennial bridesmaid Kenny Bednarek, who took silver in 19.58. Bryan Levell took bronze in a personal best 19.64, edging Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo, to win Jamaica’s first medal in the event since 2015.

American Melissa Jefferson-Wooden became the fourth woman to complete the sprint double at the world championships with victory in the women's 200m final. Jefferson-Wooden ran the fastest time of the year of 21.68 to finish ahead of Britain's Amy Hunt, while bronze went to double defending champion Shericka Jackson of Jamaica in 22.18.

Jefferson-Wooden went on to become the second woman to sweep all three sprint titles at one World Athletics Championships when she was part of the United States team that won the 4x100 metre relay.

In the final of women’s 5,000 metres, Beatrice Chebet outsprinted fellow Kenyan Faith Kipyegon in a stunning finish to win the world title, completing a 5,000-10,000 double in Tokyo to match her Olympic haul last year.

The world record holder's victory in 14 minutes 54.36 seconds completed her set of global distance titles and denied 1,500m champion Kipyegon a double of her own in Tokyo.

Spaniard Maria Perez collected her second gold medal of the world championships in the women's 20 kilometre walk to secure an unprecedented double-double.

Perez, who successfully defending her 35km title in searing heat early in the championships, slapped her singlet in delight as she crossed the line in one hour, 25 minutes and 54 seconds, a comfortable 12 seconds ahead of Mexico's Alegna Gonzalez in second place.

It was a redeeming moment for Perez, who had missed out on an Olympic medal by eight seconds at the same National Stadium in 2021.

Alphonce Felix Simbu snatched gold in the first photo finish at a major championship marathon, edging out German Amanal Petros in a dramatic race to the line to give Tanzania its maiden world title.

The photo finish showed the 42.195km race was decided by three hundredths of a second as Simbu surged past the diving Petros at the line, closer than the 0.05-second gap between the gold and silver medallists in the men's 100m final.

Simbu and Petros were given the same time of two hours, nine minutes and 48 seconds, the German taking the silver despite heading the field as the leaders entered Tokyo's National Stadium. Italian Iliass Aouani took the bronze in 2:09.53.

Kenya's Lilian Odira produced a storming finish to win an astonishing women’s 800 metres world gold, smashing her personal best by almost two seconds and erasing the 42-year-old championship record.

Odira looked out of it with 30 metres to go but surged past two Britons leading the race to win in one minute, 54.62 seconds, beating the mark set by Czech Jarmila Kratochvilova at the first world championships in 1983.

Georgia Hunter-Bell squeezed past her compatriot Keely Hodgkinson to take silver in a personal best 1:54.90, with the Olympic champion adding bronze to two previous world silvers in 1:54.91.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone ran the fastest women's 400 metres in 40 years to claim world championship gold in 47.78 seconds and complete her transition from the one-lap hurdles in emphatic style.

The American stormed through the Tokyo rain and held off Dominican Olympic champion Marileidy Paulino in a sprint to the line to add a first global gold in the flat 400m to the two Olympic and one world titles she won over the hurdles.

Only Marita Koch has run faster in the event, the East German setting the world record time of 47.60 in 1985 under the shadow of the Cold War nation's systematic doping programme.

International Olympic Committee

Kirsty Coventry smashed through the International Olympic Committee’s glass ceiling to become the organisation’s first female and first African president in its 130-year history.

The Zimbabwean swimming great, already a towering figure in Olympic circles, emerged victorious to replace German Thomas Bach, securing the top job in world sport and ushering in a new era for the Games.

Production: Andy Ragg/Reuters