The World Athletics Championship is a biennial international outdoor track and field competition organized by the sport’s governing body, World Athletics (formerly International Association of Athletics Federations). Held alongside the Olympic Games, it is the highest level of senior world outdoor athletics competition. It is the most important international competition in track and field athletics. The best athletes from around the world come to compete in this event. Besides individual medals in each event, the top three finishers receive gold, silver and bronze medals. Originally named the IAAF World Cup, it was first held in 1983 in Helsinki, Finland.
A day of shocks and surprise winners at the World Championships in Tokyo on Sunday (21 July). Melissa Jefferson-Wooden clinched a sprint treble, and joined her idol Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce as the only woman to do so, while Leo Neugebauer won the decathlon after a dramatic race of twists and turns, Daniel Stahl became a four-time champion in the discus and Cole Hocker rebounded from a difficult Olympics to win the 5000m gold.
But the biggest crowd pleaser was the American men’s 4x100m team, who pipped Botswana to take victory in the final. This was the third consecutive victory at this event for the US squad, and their performance is a massive boost ahead of next year’s Olympic Games in LA. They won with a new world record, and topped the all-time list of men’s world records set at the championships.