The 2025 World Athletics Championships have concluded in Tokyo, Japan, and there were plenty of outstanding performances. From Armand Duplantis setting a new world record in the pole vault, to Melissa Jefferson-Wooden winning the women’s 100m and 200m in emphatic style, there was much to admire. What we didn’t see, however, was a single gold medal for Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Since the World Athletics Championships first took place back in 1983, Team GB & NI have only failed to strike gold once, in Paris in 2003. On that occasion, the Brits only won three medals in total. In 2025, the team at least surpassed that poor haul, with five overall: three silvers and two bronze medals. That put them 21st in the overall medal standings, their second-lowest rank ever. Hopes were high going into the championships as the British team appeared to have several gold-medal prospects. So the question is, what went wrong? Before we answer that, let’s first celebrate the British athletes who did win medals.
British Athletes Who Medalled at Tokyo 2025
The three silver medallists for Britain were Jake Wightman in the men’s 1500m, Amy Hunt in the women’s 200m, and Georgia Hunter Bell in the women’s 800m, a race in which Keely Hodgkinson won bronze. The other bronze was earned by Katarina Johnson-Thompson in the heptathlon.
Women’s 800m Almost Went to Plan
Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson went into the women’s 800m feeling confident she could add a world gold to her collection of medals. That was despite her having missed the majority of the season through injury. The Brits also had strong claims for a medal in the form of Hodgkinson’s training partner, Georgia Hunter Bell. In a fast-paced race, things were looking good for the British duo as they rounded the bend into the home straight, with Hodgkinson marginally ahead of Hunter Bell. Unfortunately for the British team, Kenya’s Lilian Odira timed her finish to perfection and took the gold with a sizzling time. Hunter Bell narrowly edged the silver ahead of her teammate, with Hodgkinson left disappointed with her bronze despite putting in a very decent run.
Wightman’s Workrate Rewarded with Silver
Jake Wightman went into the men’s 1500m with an outside chance of a medal, and most of the attention had been on his teammate and current world champion Josh Kerr, who was determined to defend his crown. Athletics can be cruel at times, and Kerr picked up a calf injury so ran well below his best and was never in contention for a medal. Wightman won the event at the World Championships in Eugene in 2022, but had suffered several injuries since. But he was the Brit who made it onto the podium after winning the silver after being narrowly pipped by Isaac Nader of Portugal.
Amy Hunts Down Silver in 200m
Amy Hunt is still only 23 years old, but she’s making swift progress in her career as she’s already earned several world medals in the relays, and now she has her first major individual medal. The 200m final featured both Hunt and Dina Asher-Smith (who won the event in Doha in 2019), so the British team dared to dream of at least one medal. But with stiff competition from the fastest women in the world, it was never going to be easy. Hunt, though, appeared unfazed by the quality of the athletes around here and ran a fantastic race to earn the silver behind the outstanding talent that is Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, who had already won the 100m.
Margins Count as KJT Bags Bronze… Just
Katarina Johnson-Thompson won the heptathlon at the World Championships in both 2019 and 2023, but after a tough season, she certainly wasn’t nailed on for a medal at this event. After a mixed bag of events, with slight underperformances in the high jump and the throws, but solid showings in the 200m, hurdles and long jump, KJT’s medal chances came down to the final discipline, the 800m. She was out of the running for the top two medals, but to earn a bronze, she had to beat the USA Taliyah Brooks by around six seconds. She almost managed it, but, once the totals were totted, she ended up exactly level with Brooks on 6,581 points, meaning they both won bronze medals.
No Joy in the Relays
One of the great areas of medal success for GB & NI in athletics over the last couple of decades has been the relays. But this time around, the Brits failed to win a relay medal of any colour for the first time since Paris 2003. Unfortunately, the quartets didn’t even make the final of the men’s 4x100m (after messing up a changeover) or the women’s 4x400m (who simply weren’t good enough), both of which have proved rich hunting grounds for medals in the past.
In appalling conditions (essentially monsoon rain!), the British women put up a decent fight in their 4x100m final, but ultimately had to settle for fourth place behind the USA, Jamaica and a Germany team who overperformed. It was the final changeover that appeared to cost GB valuable time, and they’ll be disappointed to have missed out, especially after having won gold at the World Athletics Relays championships event earlier in the year. The men’s 4x400m team, meanwhile, simply didn’t have the quality to compete with the leading nations and finished sixth.
While it was always going to be a tough ask for the British to win gold in any of the relays, you never know what can happen in the final, especially with the rain hammering down as it was. But two teams not even making the final meant there was no chance to capitalise on the mistakes of other teams.
Injuries Took their Toll
Molly Caudery’s bid for world pole vault gold has been ruined by injury in Tokyo.#BBCAthletics #WorldAthleticsChamps
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) September 15, 2025
One of Team GB & NI’s strongest prospects for a gold medal at the championships was Josh Kerr. His injury in (or perhaps before) the 1500m final effectively ended his – and GB’s – chances of winning that gold. Wightman almost made up for it, but a fully fit Kerr might just have had the legs to win the race. Injury also might have put paid to Keely Hodgkinson’s chances of gold.
She was in excellent form coming into the championships, but she had missed months of training, including – according to her coach, Jenny Meadows – a chunk of speed training. Perhaps, if Hodgkinson had been fit all season, she might have had the strength in the final 50m to hold off Lilian Odira (and her own teammate Hunter Bell) and retain her title. Add to that the injury to pole vaulter Molly Caudery, who would certainly have been a contender, and there’s no doubt injuries played their part in the disappointing British medal haul.
Overall, a total of five medals at the World Championships does not represent a disaster. But the coaches and athletes will certainly be hoping for more on the track and in the field at the next big athletics event, the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship, which takes place next summer in Budapest.