Watch SBS as 49 World Champions are crowned in nine days at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 2025
25 August, 2025
Media releases
The countdown is on for one of the biggest international sporting events of the year. SBS will broadcast every thrilling moment of the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo (13-21 September), with expert commentary led by the legendary Bruce McAvaney.
All 14 sessions of the nine-day World Athletics Championships (both arena and road events) will be broadcast live and free across SBS VICELAND and SBS On Demand. The 100m and 200m finals will also be broadcast on SBS's main linear channel. SBS On Demand will also offer full replays, mini recaps and Aussie Focus clips for each session via our World Athletics Championships 2025 Hub, and there will be extensive coverage across SBS Sport's social media platforms.
More than 2000 athletes from 200 countries will contend for 147 medals across 49 events in Tokyo, with a prize pool of more than $13 million ($US8.498 million), and bonuses of $155,000 ($US100,000) for each world record.
SBS Director of Sport Ken Shipp said: The World Athletics Championships in Tokyo will be unmissable viewing for Australian fans, as a rising Australian team takes on the world's best in a global showdown. We've broadcast ten editions of the World Athletics Championships since 2001, and this one shapes as a spectacular opportunity for Australia. With the event in our time zone and our expert commentary team taking viewers into the heart of the action with unmatched insight and enthusiasm, our audience won't miss a moment.''
McAvaney will team with former world indoor 800m champion Tamsyn Manou to call the track events, while renowned SBS commentator David Basheer will bring audiences all the action in the field.
The Australian team is coming off its most successful Olympic Games in almost 70 years, after winning seven medals (one gold, two silver, four bronze) in Paris last year, and will hope to build on that success in Paris.
McAvaney said he had never been more excited by the prospects of an Australian team, going into the biennial World Championships.
This is athletics at its finest,'' he said. A world championship is as great a challenge as an Olympics. But this Australian team boasts as much depth as I can remember. You have to think that we are in a golden age, coming off the back of Paris.
And then we have exceptional new talent coming through, like Gout Gout. He may be 17, but I think it's possible for him to reach the 200m final in Tokyo, which would be an extraordinary achievement at his age - even Usain Bolt couldn't do that.
It's going to be fascinating to watch his journey, and those of the other youngsters like Claudia Hollingsworth, who just broke the national 800m record, and another teenager Cameron Myers in the 1500m. They all look like generational talents, and this is the chance for Australian fans to get on board and follow them through to the Brisbane Olympics in 2032. What a ride this is going to be.''
The action begins at 8.50am AEST on Saturday, 13 September, on SBS VICELAND and SBS On Demand, with the men's and women's 35km race walks, where world No.1 ranked Australian Olivia Sandery will be striving for the podium. The first evening session starts at 7.30pm AEST, as global athletics returns to the Japan National Stadium for the first time since the Covid-affected 2020 Olympic Games.
This time the state-of-the-art 67,000-seat stadium will see sold-out crowds creating the electric atmosphere that lifts athletes to new heights. More than 375,000 tickets had been sold 50 days before the event.
Laureus World Sportsman of the Year, Mondo Duplantis of Sweden, warmed up for his world title defence by setting a new world pole vault record in Budapest this month, raising the bar to an astonishing 6.29m, while Kenyan great Faith Kipyegon will arrive in Tokyo after improving her own world 1500m record (3:48.68) last month in Oregon.
Australian contenders will take on some of the biggest global stars in athletics. Kurtis Marschall finished third behind Duplantis in Budapest to confirm that he is on track for another podium finish at the world championships, and Olympic silver medallist Jessica Hull will be trying to hunt down Kipyegon in the 1500m. All will be in action in qualifying rounds on the first evening of the championships.
Other key evening sessions include: Sunday, 14 September (men's and women's 100m finals); Monday, 15 September (men's pole vault final); Tuesday, 15 September (women's 1500m final); Wednesday, 16 September (women's pole vault final, men's long jump final, men's 1500m final); Thursday, 17 September (men's 200m semi-finals with Gout Gout); Friday, 18 September (men's 200m final).
The all-finals evening session on Sunday, 21 September, will see nine world champions crowned. Among the highlights for Australian viewers will be the women's high jump final (8.35pm AEST), where world indoor champion Nicola Olyslagers and former world champion Eleanor Patterson will contend for gold with Ukraine's Olympic champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh.
Olympic pole vault champion Nina Kennedy will return from injury to defend her 2023 world title, while sprint sensation Gout Gout will make his senior World Championships debut in the 200m, where he will meet reigning world champion Noah Lyles and Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo.
See the full schedule for SBS's broadcast of the World Athletics Championships.
See the promo for SBS's broadcast. This is available to be embedded in digital articles.
For a pdf of this media release, click here.
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Watch SBS as 49 World Champions are crowned in nine days at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 2025 
