McLaughlin-Levrone and Kebinatshipi make one-lap history in Tokyo
18th September 2025
Four years after making history in the hurdles on this track, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone added her name into the record books again, this time by winning the women's 400m at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 in a championship record of 47.78.
Her run came just moments after Collen Kebinatshipi achieved a historic first for Botswana in the men’s 400m, becoming his nation’s first ever world champion in a men’s event.
Elsewhere on day six of the championships, Keshorn Walcott returned to the top of a global podium to take the men’s javelin title, while Cuba’s Leyanis Perez Hernandez beat defending champion Yulimar Rojas and Olympic champion Thea Lafond to win the women’s triple jump.
Spectator figures on day six:
Evening session: 57,327
News article: Area Associations set gender equity actions as new Allyship Award announced at Gender Leadership Conference in Tokyo
All six Area Associations of World Athletics committed to specific actions and targets to advance gender equity within their organisations and the sport at the Gender Leadership Conference held in Tokyo on Wednesday (17).
World Athletics began a process of gender leadership reform under President Sebastian Coe as part of broader governance reforms that were rolled out in 2016. A target was set of achieving gender parity on the World Athletics Council by 2027, and that was achieved four years early, at the World Athletics Congress in Budapest in 2023.
All World Athletics Commissions have also achieved gender parity and attention has now turned to assisting the Area Associations and Member Federations to reach the same standards.