My days of watching blanket coverage of sporting tournaments are long over due to work, family and living in what is often an inconvenient time-zone. However, with the 20th edition of the World Athletics Championships being hosted in Tokyo, and available on free-to-air TV, it meant I saw more of this event than the previous 19 versions!

Work and other things still got in the way at times but I managed to catch a fair amount of live action each night when back home. On top of that, the official 10 minute daily highlights package on YouTube kept me up to date in my native tongue. Oh and I was also in attendance for two of the evening sessions having bought tickets way back in August last year though it seems many people just purchased them in the last month or so. My first ticket on Day 2 included the 100 metres finals among others and the other was the ninth and final session last Sunday (21st September).

Despite light rain being forecast to happen briefly during the evening I still decided to cycle down to the stadium from the Tokyo Fox Global Operations Centre. My blind faith thought it’d all be fine by the time I left after the action concluded around 9:30 pm! Find out how that all worked out for me later!!

Having not had any time to wander round the stadium to see what was going on the previous week, I left a bit earlier this time (the benefit of not bringing my wife with me!) as I’d arranged to meet my friend James at the main National Stadium sign.

However, he ignored that and went to our entrance gate which I had passed on my arrival at the stadium! As I got to Gate A, he then said he was at the sign so I said I’d wait for him to come back and get some cheesy shots at the Sony tent in the meantime. It turned out he’d gone to the National Stadium sign on the other side of the venue!

Once our paths finally crossed inside, we took our seats on the front row of the top tier in a half-empty stadium. It was that way as I guess most people weren’t too fussed about the earlier part of the evening schedule which included the javelin part of the decathlon competition.

It was that way as I guess most people weren’t too fussed about the earlier part of the evening schedule which included the javelin part of the Decathlon competition. Knowing it was gonna be a long night I walked round the stadium a bit to stretch my legs and see what food was on sale.

Just under two hours later, the high jump began and this week it happened at the right end of the stadium for me!

As a Brit, one event I was particularly interested in was the women’s 800 metre final featuring Paris 2024 gold medalist Keely Hodginson. All was looking good after about 600 metres with a British one-two. The lead wasn’t sufficient enough though to withstand a late surge from Kenya’s Lilian Odira who took the gold whilst fellow Brit Georgia Hunter Bell also edged her out right on the line. Fine margins eh!

The 5000 metres then began right down in front of us and had me a little bemused as I thought I’d seen that event seven days earlier! Not surprisingly I had confused that with the 10,000 metre race which was something of a highlight as Frenchman Jimmy Gressier won it at the death.

Indeed he was taking part in this one but had to ultimately settle for third as the American  Cole Hocker stormed it at the end. That certainly wasn’t the last gold medal for the USA!

At 8:00 the discus throw final began and not long after that it started to drizzle. That soon became normal rain and in no time at all it was a huge downpour. The ongoing field events were suspended but the upcoming relays would still take place on the wet track. The following two photos show the contrast in the weather conditions before …

… and after!

The relays were of course what everyone had come to see and first up were the 4 x 400 metre races. Botswana claimed gold in a fantastic men’s finale before the USA team produced a dominant performance in the women’s final.

With a case-load of gold medals to her name, legendary Jamaican sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (now 38 years old) was hoping to sign off in style in the women’s 4 x 100 metre relay which was to be her last ever race. The Americans outran them though and broke a championship record in torrential conditions. This was the only relay final which Britain qualified for but they sadly finished just outside of the medals in fourth place.

Usually it’s just the winners that are interviewed but an exception was made for Jamaica!

Athletics’ greatest showman Noah Lyles brought it home for the USA in the men’s 4 x 100 metre race soon after that as the rainy conditions added to the excitement for the capacity crowd.

A lap of honour for the triumphant USA relay team

That should’ve been the end of the championships but the postponed high jump and discus events still needed to conclude. I hung around for the former and got to hear the Men At Work classic ‘Down Under’ played on the PA system once it was confirmed that Australia’s Nicola Olyslagers was the champion. I then had the small matter of having to cycle home in the rain which wasn’t so nice but I didn’t let it cloud my day after such a great evening of top athletics action.

Click here to read ‘The Long Wait To See Some Top Athletics Action In Tokyo Is Finally Over!’

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Click here to read ‘I Had A Golden Time At This Athletics Event In Yokohama’