Tokyo to host 2025 world athletics champs

The 2025 World Athletics Championships will return to Tokyo, the sport's global governing body announced Thursday.

The World Athletics Council confirmed that Tokyo would stage the championships for the second time after beating out competition from Kenya, Poland and Singapore.

It means Tokyo's Olympic Stadium will get the chance to host a major athletics event in a packed venue, four years after staging the pandemic-delayed Olympic games in an empty arena.

"Within an extremely strong field of candidates to host the World Athletics Championships 2025, Tokyo offered a compelling bid," World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said in a statement.

"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."

Tokyo last hosted the World Championships in 1991, in an event best remembered for American long-jumper Mike Powell's world record-breaking leap of 8.95m (29ft 4.4in) to eclipse Bob Beamon's long-standing 1968 mark.

"History has shown that we have the ability and energy to host the world's top athletes and to inspire international audiences," JAAF President Mitsugi Ogata said in a statement.

"We promise that the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo will be full of fans to become an unforgettable experience for the athletes and everyone involved," Ogata added.

The decision was announced on the eve of this year's World Championships, which start on Friday at Eugene's Hayward Field in Oregon.