The World Athletics Championships are a biennial athletics competition organized by World Athletics. Alongside the Olympic Games, they represent the highest level championships of senior international outdoor athletics competition for track and field athletics globally, including marathon running and race walking. Separate World Championships are held by World Athletics for certain other outdoor events, including cross-country running and half-marathon, as well as indoor and age-group championships.
Shawn Crawford is a retired American sprint athlete. He competed in the 100 meters and 200 meters events. In the 200 meter sprint, Crawford won gold at the 2004 Summer Olympics and silver at the 2008 Summer Olympics. He originally finished 4th in the race but after the 2nd and 3rd-place winners were disqualified, he moved up to a silver. On April 17, 2013, Crawford was suspended for two years for missing out-of-competition drug tests. His coach, Bob Kersee claimed that Crawford retired after the 2012 United States Olympic Trials and USA Track & Field said he filed retirement papers in 2013.
Aaron Nigel Armstrong is a track and field sprint athlete who competes internationally for Trinidad and Tobago. He is the 2008 Olympic champion in 4 × 100 metres relay.
Churandy Thomas Martina is a Dutch sprinter. He originally placed second in the 200 metres at the 2008 Beijing Olympics but was later disqualified due to a lane violation. Martina secured four and two individual top-five finishes at the Summer Olympics and World Athletics Championships respectively. He was the 100 metres 2007 Pan American Games champion representing the Netherlands Antilles and claimed three individual titles at the Central American and Caribbean Games. He won gold medals in the 200 m and 100 m at the 2012 and 2016 European Athletics Championships respectively.
Naoki Tsukahara is a Japanese track and field sprinter who specialises in the 100 metres.
Richard "Torpedo" Thompson is a sprinter from Trinidad and Tobago who specializes in the 100 metres. His personal best of 9.82 seconds, set in June 2014, was one of the top ten fastest of all time, and a national record. In the 200 meters he has the fourth fastest time by a Trinidad and Tobago athlete.
Nataliya Olehivna Pohrebniak is a Russian-Ukrainian sprint athlete who specializes in the 100 metres. Pohrebniak was part of the Ukrainian women's 4 × 100 m that won gold during the 2010 European Athletics with 42.29 – the fastest time in the world that year. She changed her allegiance to Russia after 2016 and began competing in Russian national competitions in 2019.
Marika Popowicz-Drapała is a Polish track and field sprinter. She won bronze medals in the 100 metres and 200 metres at the 2009 European Under-23 Championships. Popowicz-Drapała earned several major medals as part of Poland's women's relays.
Ricardo Chambers is a Jamaican track and field athlete who specialises in the 400 metres.
Jamile Samuel is a Dutch athlete sprinter, who specialises in the 100 and 200 metres. She won three bronze medals at the 2010 World Junior Championships in Athletics, thus establishing herself as the third-fastest female runner under the age of 20 in the world. She won a gold medal with the Dutch women's 4 × 100 m relay team at the 2016 European Championships in Amsterdam.
Slobodan Branković is a Serbian former track and field athlete who specialised in the 400 metres. He is currently the general secretary of the Athletics Federation of Serbia.
Dafne Schippers is a Dutch track and field athlete. She competes primarily in the sprints, having previously participated in the heptathlon. She is the 2015 and 2017 World champion and won silver at the 2016 Rio Olympics in the 200 metres.
Darlenys Obregón Mulato is a Colombian track and field athlete who competes in the sprinting events, primarily the 200 metres in which she has a personal best of 23.09 seconds. She represented her country at the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2012 Summer Olympics and is a three-time participant in the World Championships in Athletics.
Liemarvin Bonevacia is a Dutch sprinter specialising in the 400 metres. He won bronze medals in the event at the 2016 European Athletics Championships, and the 2017 and 2021 European Indoor Championships. Bonevacia earned also five major medals for the 4 × 400 m relays, either men's or mixed, including silver medal in the men's relay at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The World Athletics Relays, known as the IAAF World Relays until 2019, is an international biennial track and field sporting event held by World Athletics where teams from around the world compete in relay races, some of which are not part of the standard Olympic programme. The first three editions were set to take place in Nassau, Bahamas at the Thomas Robinson Stadium in 2014, 2015 and 2017. Originally intended as an annual event, it was later decided to happen every odd year, the same as the World Athletics Championships for which it serves as a qualification stage.
The 2019 IAAF World Athletics Championships was the seventeenth edition of the biennial, global athletics competition organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), since renamed World Athletics. It was held between 27 September and 6 October 2019 in Doha, Qatar, at the renovated multi-purpose Khalifa International Stadium, but reduced to 21,000 available seats. 1,772 athletes from 206 teams competed in 49 athletics events over the ten-day competition, comprising 24 events each for men and women, plus a mixed relay. There were 43 track and field events, 4 racewalking events, and 2 marathon road running events. The racewalking and marathon events were held in Doha Corniche.
Naomi Sedney is a Dutch sprinter. She has been most successful as the anchor of the Dutch Relay team and is co-holder of the national record 4 x 100 m relay. In 2022 her younger sister Zoë Sedney joined her in the Dutch Relay team.
Olga Antonova is a Russian former track and field sprinter who competed for the Soviet Union. She represented her country at the World Championships in Athletics in 1983 and 1987, winning a relay medal at the latter edition. She was a bronze medallist over 200 m at the 1984 European Athletics Indoor Championships and was a two-time Soviet indoor champion over 60 metres.
Lieke Klaver is a Dutch track and field athlete who specialises in sprint races. She finished fourth in the 400 metres at the 2022 World Athletics Championships. Klaver won the silver medal for the event at the 2023 European Indoor Championships. She earned five major medals as part of Dutch 4 × 400 m relays, either women's or mixed, including silver for the mixed relay at the 2022 World Championships.
The men's 4 × 100 metres relay at the 2021 World Athletics Relays has been held at the Silesian Stadium on 1 and 2 May.
