Conversations with Larry, Tokyo 2025 Highlights of the World Athletics Championships, Day 2: September 14, 2025 Melissa Jefferson-Wooden runs the 100m.

RunBlogRun presents

Conversations with Larry

Tokyo 2025

Day of the World Athletics Championships

2 Review:

September 14, 2025

Melissa Jefferson-Wooden won gold.

The crowd at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium was a big part of the story. Sitting in section 310, row 10, this writer enjoyed nine great days and nights of runway. We were seeing 18-20,000 fans in the mornings and 55-56,000 fans every night most evenings. This was especially for Tokyo their Olympics. The Tokyo 2021 Olympics cost the country more than $5 billion in lost ticket sales, hospitality fees and goodwill. Covid-19 stopped that.

World Athletics President Seb Coe made it very clear that athletics was the first sport to return to Japan after the Tokyo Olympics. Of particular note was the opening presser where the LOC chief was in absolute tears stating how important this event was to Japan.

The hosts were fantastic. From walking around every night and enjoying the world’s greatest Ramen, to friendly taxi drivers to helpful volunteers at the stadium, this writer shared two amazing weeks in Japan with her brother Brian Eder, co-founder of RunBlogRun.

Enjoy our Day 2 coverage and great Day 2 finals.

There were many surprises and exciting moments.

1. Valeria Allman won her first discus title at the world championships. The two-time Olympic champion added the discus title to her medal collection.
2. Tara Davies-Woodhall dominated the long jump at the world championships, with Tokyo Olympic champion Malaika Mihambo taking silver.
3. Talk about a surprise! France cheered as Jimmy Gresier pipped Ethiopia’s Yomif Keyelcha and Sweden’s Andreas Almgren to round out the medals. Europe took two of the three medals in the 10,000 meters. Pretty Awesome!
4. Melissa Jefferson-Wooden won the women’s 100m, with silver medalist Tina Clayton (Jamaica) and Olympic champion Julien Alfred (LCA) taking bronze. Melissa Jefferson-Wooden continued her complete dominance of the sprints in 2025.
5. In an impressive men’s 100m, Jamaica went one, two. Tek Sevilla won the gold, Keeshan Thompson won the silver, and Noah Lyles was the happiest man there to win a medal with such a short lineup.

This is our overview of all nine days of the 2025 World Athletics Outdoor Championships from 13-21 September 2025. This coverage was sponsored by NIKE Running. Please check out the Vomero 18, Vomero PLUS, Vomero Premium and Air Structure 26 at your favorite local NIKE running store or go to www.nikerrunning.com!

Special thanks Mike Dearingwho edits, curates and produces the podcasts Stronger Media Group LLC (RunBlogRun.com and: RunningNetwork.com)

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