Japan will host World Athletics’ flagship event in three years’ time with Croatia and Florida set to organise the World Cross Country Championships

Tokyo will stage the World Championships in 2025, whereas the World Cross Country Championships will be held in 2024 in Croatia and 2026 in Florida.

These were some of the decisions made at a World Athletics Council meeting on the eve of the World Championships in Eugene.

The 2025 World Championships will see the sport return to Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium, venue for last year’s Olympic Games, in the year that the Japanese Association of Athletics Federations (JAAF) celebrates its centenary year.

And Tokyo will have the opportunity to fill its Olympic stadium with fans who were denied the opportunity to attend the Olympics due to pandemic restrictions.

The other candidates for the event were Nairobi, Silesia and Singapore, all of which, World Athletics say, were deemed strong enough and experienced enough to host the event. Yet Tokyo was given the nod after scoring the highest of the four candidates in the bid evaluation across the four focused areas: the potential for a powerful narrative; revenue generating opportunities for World Athletics; a destination that will enhance the international profile of the sport; and appropriate climate.

World Athletics president Seb Coe said: “Within an extremely strong field of candidates to host the World Athletics Championships 2025, Tokyo offered a compelling bid. I hope this will be a shining light for Japan as they celebrate 100 years of the Japanese Association of Athletics Federations (JAAF) in 2025, by bringing world-class athletics back to the people in Tokyo.”

Following this month’s championships in Eugene, the next edition of the global event will be in Budapest in 2023.

As for the World Cross Country Championships, Medulin and Pula in Croatia were named host of the 2024 edition with the 2026 championships staged in Tallahassee, Florida, which means the event returns to the United States for the first time since 1992 when it was held in Boston.