The women's 10,000 metres at the 2025 World Athletics Championships was held at the National Stadium in Tokyo on 13 September 2025.
Summary Gudaf Tsegay returned as the defending champion after leading a dramatic Ethiopian sweep when Sifan Hassan blew up on the home stretch. There was to be no Hassan factor in this Championships because she chose to focus her efforts winning the Sydney Marathon a couple of weeks earlier but after setting the world record last year, Beatrice Chebet's strength and speed might be more foreboding. Chebet didn't have a fast 10,000 on her record for 2025 but became the first woman to break 14 minutes in the 5000. The world leader was Janeth Chepngetich. 2023 bronze medalist Ejgayehu Taye returned, and Nadia Battocletti took silver at the Olympics behind Chebet after Hassan got stuck in traffic.
This was a championship race in the Tokyo heat and humidity, not a world record attempt, so they wouldn't be crushing it. Ririka Hironaka was given some camera time in front of the home crowd for the first eight laps with the major contenders watching from the front of the pack. Then Agnes Ngetich went to the front, dropping the pace from 74 second laps to 71's. The field strung out. In the next 3 laps the pack went from 24 to 7. Chebet even came to the front to push the 14th lap in 68. It was down to Ngetich, Chebet, Taye, Tsegay and Battocletti. Looing around the 16th lap slowed to a 73 anticipating the work to come. Then they went back to 68, Taye cranked the 18th lap in 66 but backed off. They settled for a few 69s, with the 22nd lap slowing to 77 as the competitors were sizing each other up. Three laps to go and no breakaway seemed to be handing the race to Chebet. With a kilometer to go, Tsegay came from the back of the group to push the pace, Taye couldn't hang on but the other three did. Tsegay pushed the next two laps, checking back but seeing she had achieved no separation. As soon as they crossed the 200 metre start line, Chebet took off. Only Battocletti went with her. Battocletti kept the gap to a metre through the turn, but then it became two and three. Chebet made it five by the finish line. Tsegay held on for bronze.https://worldathletics.org/results/world-athletics-championships/2025/world-athletics-championships-tokyo-2025-7190593/women/10000-metres/final/splithttps://www.nbcolympics.com/videos/chebet-wins-10000m-track-and-field-world-title-tokyohttps://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250913-kenya-s-chebet-wins-10-000m-gold-to-set-up-tilt-at-world-double
Records Before the competition records were as follows:
RecordAthlete & LocationDate World record 28:54.14 Eugene, United States 25 May 2024 Championship record 30:04.18 Saint-Denis, France 23 August 2003 World Leading 30:27.02 Nairobi, Kenya 22 July 2025 African Record 28:54.14 Eugene, United States 25 May 2024 Asian Record 29:31.78 Beijing, China 8 September 1993 European Record 29:06.82 Hengelo, Netherlands 6 June 2021 North, Central American and Caribbean record 30:03.82 San Juan Capistrano, United States 4 March 2023 Oceanian record 30:34.11 Oslo, Norway 11 June 2025 South American Record 31:33.07 San Juan Capistrano, United States 16 March 2024
Qualification standard The standard to qualify automatically for entry was 30:20.00.
Schedule The event schedule, in local time (UTC+9), was as follows:
Date Time Round13 September 21:30 Final
Final The final started on 13 September at 21:31. Rank Name Nationality Time Notes Beatrice Chebet 30:37.61 Nadia Battocletti 30:38.23 Gudaf Tsegay 30:39.65 4 Agnes Jebet Ngetich 30:42.66 5 Ejgayehu Taye 30:55.52 6 Ririka Hironaka 31:09.62 7 Joy Cheptoyek 31:15.03 8 Fotyen Tesfay 31:21.67 9 Lauren Ryan 31:27.78 10 Megan Keith 31:33.85 11 Calli Thackery 31:37.81 12 Elise Cranny 31:40.07 13 Jana van Lent 31:44.05 14 Emily Infeld 31:47.65 15 Klara Lukan 31:49.76 16 Daisy Jepkemei 31:49.87 17 Isobel Batt-Doyle 31:53.41 18 Taylor Roe 32:12.19 19 Elisa Palmero 32:12.72 20 Mikuni Yada 32:28.94 21 Tsigie Gebreselama 32:33.73 22 Francine Niyomukunzi 32:52.59 23 Eva Dieterich 33:46.76 24 36:00.21 — Rebecca Chelangat Sarah Chelangat Janeth Chepngetich
References