After a dramatic season of world-class track and field in the Wanda Diamond League, the world’s best athletes have finally landed in Tokyo for the 2025 World Athletics Championships.
Over the past few months, the sport’s biggest stars have gone toe to toe in the Diamond League, honing their form and fitness at the highest level as they build up to Tokyo.
So who is in medal-winning form, who could spring a surprise and who are the ones to watch at this year’s championships?
Here’s our Diamond League form check for Tokyo 2025.
Title defenders in form
Defending world champion in both the men’s 100m and the men’s 200m, Noah Lyles heads to Tokyo on a high after a rollercoaster season in the Diamond League.
Having struggled with injury in the first half of the year, the American superstar returned to action with an impressive 200m win over Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo in Monaco in July.
Despite 100m defeats to Oblique Seville and Kishane Thompson in London and Silesia, Lyles was bullish ahead of the Wanda Diamond League Final in Zurich, and rightly so.
At the Letzigrund Stadium, he beat Tebogo again by a whisker, claiming his sixth Diamond League title and becoming the most successful track athlete in the series’ history.
Norwegian 400m hurdles star Karsten Warholm also heads to Tokyo in title-winning form, having won the Diamond Trophy for the first time since 2021 last month.
Warholm twice set a new world best in the 300m hurdles, clocking 33.05 at the season opener in Xiamen and 32.67 on home soil in Oslo.
Despite one defeat to Rai Benjamin in Stockholm, he also showed formidable form in the 400m hurdles, setting a new Diamond League record of 46.28 in Silesia before clinching the title in Zurich.
Neither Warholm nor Lyles can hold a candle to the consistency of Femke Bol, however.
The Dutch 400m hurdles star continued her breathtaking unbeaten run in the Diamond League this season, winning her fifth successive title and extending her winning streak in the series to 30.
Victories in Rabat, Stockholm, Monaco, London, Silesia and Zurich put her in perfect shape to defend her world title in Tokyo.
World record breakers
World records are a regular occurrence in the Wanda Diamond League, and several athletes head to Tokyo having made history on athletics’ premier one-day circuit.
Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis enjoyed one of the most memorable moments of his career (and there have been plenty) when he broke the pole vault world record on home soil at the Stockholm Diamond League in June.
His 6.28m at the 1912 Olympic Stadium was the 12th time he had broken the world record, which he later extended to 6.29m in Budapest.
In Tokyo, he will be hoping to finally break the once unimaginable 6.30m barrier and rewrite the pole vault history books once again.
On the track, it was the year of the Kenyans as both Faith Kipyegon and Beatrice Chebet broke world records in the distance events in Eugene.
Fresh from her historic attempt at a four-minute mile in Paris, Kipyegon clocked 3:48.68 in the 1500m at the Prefontaine Classic.
It was the fifth time she had broken a world record in three Diamond League seasons, and the third year in a row she had broken the 1500m record at a Diamond League meeting.
Her compatriot Chebet also heads to Tokyo in record-breaking form after she clocked 13:58.06 at the same meeting, becoming the first woman ever to break the 14-minute mark in the 5000m.
That performance was the highlight of a dominant Diamond League season from Chebet, which also saw her take victories in Xiamen, Rabat and Rome.
First-time champions?
Several of the sport’s biggest stars head to Tokyo hoping to claim World Championship gold for the first time after an impressive Diamond League campaign.
Letsile Tebogo may have lost out to Lyles in the Diamond League Final, yet victory in Doha and a world-leading 19.76 in Eugene will mean he is confident of taking the 200m title in Japan.
Fellow sprint star and 100m Olympic champion Julien Alfred is also chasing her first world title, having defended her Diamond Trophy in style in 2025.
The St. Lucian star notched up wins in Oslo, Stockholm, Monaco and Zurich suffering just one, narrow defeat to Melissa Jefferson-Wooden in Eugene.
Discus world record holder Mykolas Alekna also showed his championship-winning form with a first ever Diamond League title in Zurich.
Meanwhile, Australia’s Nicola Olyslagers also landed a major psychological blow in her rivalry with Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh ahead of Tokyo, winning the Diamond Trophy for the first time with an Oceanian record at the series final.
Breakout stars
As well as the established superstars, a handful of the sport’s most exciting talents also showed they had what it takes to win a global title with impressive Diamond League form this season.
Kenyan 3000m steeplechaser Faith Cherotich defended her Diamond League title in Zurich, also claiming the Jesse Owens Rising Star Award with an impressive 8:57.24.
That win crowned a fantastic campaign which saw her land a total of four victories, including a statement win over Olympic champion Winfred Yavi in Doha.
The USA’s Cordell Tinch also enjoyed his most successful season yet in the Diamond League, throwing down the gauntlet to reigning world champion Grant Holloway in the process.
Tinch burst out of the blocks with world leads in Xiamen and Keqiao, before saving his best form for the second half of the season, when he rampaged to three successive wins in Silesia, Lausanne and Zurich.
