Sport

Athletics

World athletics championships

Opinion

Euphoric, throbbing, alive: Why these world championships are proving a rarity

Michael Gleeson Sports columnist September 18, 2025 — 3.29pm Advertisement

These world athletics championships are the Olympics that Tokyo was supposed to have.

They are the quasi-Olympics, the consolation prize for hosting an unwanted guest four years ago. They haven’t got the whole Games back, but they have got the Games’ biggest sport back – and the chance to witness it, and embrace it, like it’s an Olympics.

The cavernous stadium that echoed to the sound of runners’ footfalls in 2021, when there were no crowds at the Olympics staged in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, is now heaving with the roars of 67,750 people. Over half a million

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