Track Queens Who Will Be Missed at 2025 World Championships.
As attention shifts to the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo, who are some top female athletes that will not be in the Japanese capital?
The 2025 World Athletics Championships is set to gun off in Tokyo, Japan on September 13 with the big names in track and field set to descend on the Japanese capital.
However, while focus will be on those in action, there are a number of track queens who will be missing out over various reasons, robbing the competition of some star power.
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Jamaican track legend Elaine Thompson-Herah will miss out on the action in Tokyo after not featuring in any competition since pulling out of the Paris 2024 Olympics with an injury.
Thompson-Herah was expected to return this year but has not and she is yet to provide an update over her whereabouts, robbing the 2025 Worlds a top contender who was expected to battle for 100m and 200m gold.
Olympic 200m champion Gabby Thomas. Photo Credit – Kevin Morris
Olympics 200m champion Gabby Thomas is the latest to pull out of the World Championships after failing to recover in time from an Achilles injury.
Thomas was one of the favourites for the 200m gold as she was eyeing her first world title and would have formed part of team USA’s relay teams as well but that is now water under bridge after the latest setback.
Former Olympics 800m champion Athing Mu-Nikolayev will also not be in Tokyo after failing to qualify for the event following her elimination in the semi-final at the US trials.
Mu-Nikolayev has not been herself since missing the Paris Olympics last year and while she returned to the track in 2025, she struggled to make an impression and it told at the grueling trials.
Beatrice Chepkoech. Photo: Athletics Kenya
World 3,000m steeplechase record holder Beatrice Chepkoech will also not be in Tokyo after battling injuries and poor form in the last one year and even missed the Kenyan trials.
The 2019 world champion managed silver in Budapest two years ago but a sixth place at the 2024 Olympics suggested she was not at her best and she is among those that will be missed.
Dutch legend Sifan Hassan has been a menace on the track at major championships down the years with her remarkable ability to feature in multiple events standing out.
However, she will not be in Tokyo this time after opting out to feature in the Sydney Marathon over one week ago, when she won the race.
Two-time Olympic 400m champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo will miss the World Athletics Championships for the first time since 2011.
The Bahamian sprinter, who turned 31 in April, faced a challenging 2024 season, exiting the Paris Olympics after a hamstring injury. Her attempt to make the team to Tokyo was unsuccessful as she fell short of the qualifying standard with the effects of the injury still evident.
Mujinga Kambundji
Mujinga Kambundji. Image source: Instagram
Swiss sprinter Mujinga Kambundji has been one of the standout performers in recent years but she will not be in Tokyo after taking maternity break.
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