Haruka Kitaguchi in action at the Seiko Golden Grand Prix (© Getty Images)
Four months ahead of the biggest athletics event of the year, there is no better dress rehearsal than to compete in the stadium that will host the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25.
The Seiko Golden Grand Prix – a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting held in Tokyo on Sunday (18) – will provide the world’s best athletes that exact opportunity.
And for the host nation’s leading performer in the sport, Japanese javelin thrower Haruka Kitaguchi, there’s no better pre-World Championships test than to line her up alongside the two women who joined her on the podium at the last World Championships in Budapest.
Since earning the world title two years ago, Kitaguchi’s profile has continued to rise, due in no small part to her winning the Olympic title in Paris last year. She opened her 2025 campaign earlier this month at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Keqiao, where she placed fourth with 60.88m. The athlete who finished just ahead of her on that occasion, Olympic silver medallist Jo-Ane van Dyk of South Africa, will also be competing in Tokyo this weekend, as will Colombia’s Flor Ruiz Hurtado and Australia’s Mackenzie Little, the world silver and bronze medallists.
Another world and Olympic champion, Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh, will be in action on the infield. The world record-holder is fresh from jumping a world-leading 2.02m in Doha last week, and will line up against Japanese indoor record-holder Nagisa Takahashi.
Elsewhere in the field events, USA’s JuVaughn Harrison turns his attention to the long jump, where he’ll take on in-form Australian Liam Adcock as well as leading Japanese duo Shunsuke Izumiya and Yuki Hashioka.
Richardson and De Grasse headline sprints
Like Kitaguchi and Mahuchikh, Sha’Carri Richardson’s place at this year’s World Championships is already guaranteed thanks to her wild card entry as a defending world champion. The US sprinter will already have one eye on returning to Tokyo later this year, but for now her immediate focus will be on winning the 100m on Sunday.
She’ll take on fellow US sprinter Twanisha Terry, who finished just 0.1 behind Richardson in the Olympic final last year.
Canada’s 2021 Olympic champion Andre de Grasse, fresh from a third-place finish in the 4x100m at last week’s World Relays, will contest his specialist discipline on Sunday, the 200m. His toughest opposition could be 19.89 performer Robert Gregory.
In the men’s 100m, 2017 world champion Christian Coleman lines up against teenage talent Christian Miller, who’ll be competing outside of the US for the first time. Pjai Austin, Jerome Blake and Hakim Sani Brown are also in the line-up.
After runner-up finishes in both Xiamen and Keqiao on the Diamond League circuit in recent weeks, Japan’s Rachid Muratake is hoping the home crowd can cheer him on to victory in the men’s 110m hurdles. Domestic rival Shunya Takayama and USA’s Dylan Beard will provide stiff competition, though.
In the women’s sprint hurdles, US duo Tonea Marshall and Alia Armstrong take on Japanese record-holder Mako Fukube, while 2022 world bronze medallist Trevor Bassitt faces Costa Rica’s Gerald Drummond and Japan’s Ken Toyoda in the men’s 400m hurdles. The men’s 400m, meanwhile, features Australia’s Reece Holder, Nigeria’s Emmanuel Bamidele and Japan’s Kentaro Sato, winner at this meeting last year.
Davies and Billings out to repeat
One year one from securing an Australian double in the women’s distance events at this meeting, Rose Davies and Sarah Billings are back in Tokyo looking for a repeat performance.
Davies was a clear winner of the 5000m last year, clocking a national record of 14:41.65, which she recently reduced to 14:40.83 in Xiamen. This weekend she’ll line up for the 3000m where she’ll take on Kenya’s Hellen Lobun, who started her 2025 campaign with a 29:30 run over 10km in Valencia.
Billings, meanwhile, will be looking to win again over 1500m, but she’ll be up against fellow Australian Georgia Griffith. Multiple Japanese record-holder Nozomi Tanaka is entered for both the 1500m and 3000m, but will most likely decide nearer the time which distance to contest.
Elsewhere in the distance events, Japan’s Ryuji Miura leads the men’s steeplechase field, while the men’s 3000m line-up includes Ethiopia’s Ermias Girma, Ireland’s Brian Fay and Kenya’s Emmanuel Korir Kiplagat.