Canadian hammer thrower Ethan Katzberg broke two records on the way to his second consecutive world title win on Tuesday at Tokyo’s National Stadium.
The 23-year-old from Nanaimo, B.C., had his second throw travel 84.70 metres, breaking both the championship record (83.63) as well as his own previous Canadian record (84.38).
The championship record had stood for 18 years before Katzberg unleashed the best throw of the 2025 season. His winning mark was 1.93m longer than his closest competitor.
Germany’s Merlin Hummel (82.77) won the silver medal while Hungary’s Bence Halasz (82.69) took bronze.
Ethan Katzberg of Nanaimo, B.C. successfully defended his hammer throw world championship gold medal, with a throw of 84.70 metres in Tokyo, setting a championship and Canadian record in the process.
Katzberg’s win completes yet another Canadian sweep of hammer throw gold after compatriot Camryn Rogers won her event on Monday. The Canadian duo have both won back-to-back world titles and were both crowned Olympic champions at Paris 2024.
Canada now has three medals at this year’s world championship, the hammer throw golden sweep plus men’s race walker Evan Dunfee gold-medal win on Sunday.
Ethan Katzberg of Nanaimo, B.C., spoke with CBC Sports’ Devin Heroux after successfully defending his world championship hammer throw title in Tokyo.
Arop moves on to 800m semis
Marco Arop began the defence of his 800m world title by qualifying in the opening-round heats. The Edmontonian ran to an automatic qualification for the semifinals with a third-place finish in his heat, crossing the line in one minute 45.39 seconds.
Fellow Canadians Abdullahi Hassan, Justin O’Toole, and Matthew Erickson did not advance from the heats.
Hosts Aaron Brown and Perdita Felicien react to Marco Arop’s up and down season, along with his chances at medalling in the men’s 800m event in Tokyo.
Faith Kipyegon pulled away from the pack for a win everyone expected and her fourth world championship at 1,500m.
Kipyegon finished in 3:52.15, nearly three seconds ahead of her Kenyan teammate Dorcus Ewoi but about three seconds behind the world record she set this year.
Kipyegon joins Hicham El Guerrouj as the only runners to win four world titles in the metric mile.
Toronto’s Gabriela DeBues-Stafford (3:59.65) finished 11th.
It puts an exclamation point on a season that began with her coming up short in a much-hyped quest to become the first woman to break the four-minute mile, but includes a new world record and, now, this title, which follows three world championships and the last three Olympic crowns.
She’ll be back on the track this week in the 5,000, which should be a fairer fight that’s expected to include Gudaf Tsegay and Beatrice Chebet, who both skipped the 1,500 to focus on the 10,000.
Perhaps the most telling sign of how Kipyegon dominates came after the race. With Ewoi and bronze medallist Jessica Hull writhing on the ground, Kipyegon jogged over, patted Ewoi on the chest, then bent to grab Hull by the arm and pull her up.
Tinch clinches hurdles gold
Cordell Tinch took the long road to elite athletics but capped a superb second season as a professional by winning 110 meters hurdles gold.
The 25-year-old American was all control and pace as he blazed over the 10 hurdles and held off the fast finishers in the run-in to claim his first global title at his first global championships in 12.99 seconds.
Orlando Bennett ran a personal best 13.08 to win silver, while his fellow Jamaican Tyler Mason took the bronze in 13.12, which matched his previous best time.
Olympic gold medallist Grant Holloway’s six-year reign as world champion ended earlier on Tuesday when the American finished sixth in his semifinal, guaranteeing a fresh champion in the event.
Tinch could not have imagined it would be him in late 2022 when he was a cellphone salesman in his home town Green Bay, having given up first a college football scholarship and then a shot at Division I athletics.
He returned to the track at Pitt State in 2023 and impressed in the high hurdles sufficiently to turn professional last year, only mid-season surgery denying him the momentum to claim a spot on the U.S. team for the Olympics.
This season, however, he has dominated his event and Tinch’s sizzling 12.87 at the Shanghai/Keqiao Diamond League in May made him the joint-fourth fastest man of all time with 2008 Olympic champion Dayron Robles.
McLaughlin-Levrone threatening long-time world 400m record
One record down, and maybe one more to go for Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.
McLaughlin-Levrone finished her 400m semifinal at the world championships in 48.29 seconds, shattering a 19-year-old American mark held by Sanya Richards-Ross by .41 seconds.
It was the fastest time of 2025, the seventh fastest time ever, and it makes the thought of breaking the 40-year-old record of 47.60 seem totally possible in the final Thursday.
“Honored, for sure,” McLaughlin-Levrone said about breaking the U.S. record she’s been targeting since she moved over from the hurdles. “I definitely wasn’t expecting that time. It just shows the fitness is there. I’m excited for the finals and grateful to have taken down a record by an amazing woman.”
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone shattered the American 400m record with a time of 48.29 at <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/WCHTokyo25?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#WCHTokyo25</a> 🤯 <a href=”https://t.co/d4N16VSPjI”>pic.twitter.com/d4N16VSPjI</a>
—@CBCOlympics
Richards-Ross, the best American 400 runner of her generation, set the record of 48.70 in 2006 and won the 400 at the London Olympics six years later.
Now, all eyes are on the mark set by an East German, Maria Koch, in 1985. It is one of the few remaining records from the Eastern Bloc era. No woman has broken 48 seconds since Koch’s record, and even McLaughlin-Levrone said that should be the first goal before thinking about the mark.
But McLaughlin-Levrone has a knack for breaking records. She’s done it six times in her “main” event, the 400 hurdles, which she took a break from this year to see what she could do in the 400 flat. Her record in the hurdles stands at 50.37.
McLaughlin said that while she was surprised to see the 48.29 pop up on a sultry night in the same stadium where she won the hurdles four years ago in the Tokyo Olympics, “The last 30 meters were a little reserved.”
“But it wasn’t surprising because I know the work that has been put in. It’s really just about executing, and I’m grateful that it showed me it’s there.”
She said she’s been focusing on training more than racing as she hones her technique under the watchful eye of coach Bobby Kersee.
