The World Athletics Council has approved the timetable and qualification system for the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 and the World Athletics Indoor Championships Nanjing 25.

The next World Championships will be held in the Japanese capital from 13-21 September. All road events will be held during morning sessions, while all other finals will take place in evening sessions. There will be morning sessions across both weekends, plus Monday 15 September - which is a bank holiday in Japan. The remaining weekdays will just have evening sessions.

The championships will begin with the men’s and women’s 35km race walk, and the first day will end with the mixed 4x400m final. Both men’s and women’s 100m finals will be held on day two, while a packed final day of action features nine finals on the track, ending with the men’s 4x100m – a break from the traditional championship-ending 4x400m.

World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said: “We are very pleased that the official timetable for the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 has been confirmed by the Council here in Paris, which allows ticket pre-sales to start right away.

“We are thrilled to be returning to Tokyo with the biggest stars of our sport who will light up the iconic stadium across nine days of awe-inspiring competition. They are sure to delight fans from Japan and around the world with their breath-taking performances.

“As one of the largest athletics stadiums in the world, the main stadium facilities in Tokyo are best in class – and the more than 40 million people in the Greater Tokyo area present massive growth opportunities for our sport.”

As has been the case for recent global championships, the qualification system for the championships will be based on a combination of entry standards and world rankings. The entry standards have been set with the aim of qualifying about 50% of the athletes.

The qualifying window for the marathon and 35km race walk is 5 November 2024 until 4 May 2025. For the 10,000m, 20km race walk, combined events and relays, the window runs from 25 February 2024 to 24 August 2025. For all other events, entry standards can be achieved from 1 August 2024 to 24 August 2025.

The World Athletics Relays Guangzhou 25 will be used as a qualifying event for the relays with the top 14 teams in each discipline securing their place at the World Championships.

As was the case for the last World Championships, the top five finishers at Platinum Label marathons and winners of individual events at area championships (except for the marathon), regardless of marks, will be considered as having achieved the entry standard.

There has been a reduction in the number of athletes qualifying for the 10,000m via the Cross Country Tour. Previously, the top eight athletes in the Cross Country Tour – not qualified through entry standards or other ways – were deemed to be qualified for the 10,000m. This number has now been reduced to the top three athletes.

For the World Athletics Indoor Championships Nanjing 25, which will be held from 21-23 March next year, athletes can qualify in one of three ways: by achieving the entry standard; by earning a wild card entry through winning their discipline on the World Indoor Tour; or by virtue of their position on the top performances list from 1 September 2024 to 9 March 2025 to complete, where necessary, the target number of athletes in each event.

This is a change from the last edition, where world rankings were used to reach the target numbers in each field.

The full qualification system documents for WCH Tokyo 25 and WIC Nanjing 25 will be published in due course.