AW Magazine

09 September, 2025

The September issue of AW (out now) is your indispensable guide to the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. This 116-page bumper edition provides you with everything you need to know about the 20th edition of the global showpiece. Steve Smythe pores over every event on the schedule to select the likely medal contenders, while Tokyo-based writer and runner Jeremy Kuhles sets the scene as he explores the city’s relationship with athletics. After the Covid-affected Olympics of 2021, this is a chance for track and field to make an impression on a Japanese public that has an obsession with road running. Two athletes who made a big impact at those Olympics four years ago were Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson and Josh Kerr, who won 800m silver and 1500m bronze respectively. Hodgkinson arrives at these championships as the reigning Olympic champion and, after a year-long struggle with injury since that golden night in Paris, she has bounced back at the right time to put herself in pole position for what would be her first world title. Her coach Trevor Painter and Alison Rose, one of the physio team charged with helping to keep her off the sidelines, discuss the work that has gone into Hodgkinson’s return and why she is never more dangerous than when she has a point to prove. Kerr, meanwhile, is the reigning 1500m world champion and he and his coach Danny Mackey talk about the value of experience, as well as the mental and physical work that goes into navigating a safe path through a major championship. Laura Muir has qualified for her seventh world championships and has also had injury issues to contend with but the Scot now can’t wait for another chance to compete in what is an ever-advancing women’s 1500m scene. There’s a flashback, too, to the 1991 world championships in Tokyo and some of the unforgettable moments that took place there 34 years ago. We also turn the clock back 25 years, to the Sydney 2000 Olympics, when Cathy Freeman brought Australia to a standstill with her performance in the 400m final. The two-time world champion revisits that time in her life, when she unwittingly became a symbol for something far greater than sport. On that same night, now known as Magic Monday, Jonathan Edwards finally became the Olympic triple jump champion. The Englishman compares that experience to his world record-breaking exploits of 30 years ago and gives his views on the current state of athletics. This issue also features a performance section that includes expert advice, training insight from steeplechaser Phil Norman, coaching insight from Helen Clitheroe and reviews of the latest trail running footwear from Paul Freary.