Over the weekend, the 2025 World Athletics Championships wrapped up in Tokyo. Held in odd years, the championships are the marquee events for track and field athletes in between Olympic Games. While they’re
obviously not as closely watched as the Olympics, having the “world champion” title is still a big deal.
At this year’s championships in Japan, there were two former North Carolina Tar Heel track and field athletes competing. While neither of them did quite enough to bring home the World Championships gold medal, let’s still give them a spotlight for their — pun only slightly intended — runs at this year’s event.
A recent graduate of UNC, distance runner Ethan Strand had quite a career in Chapel Hill. He was a national champion at the 3000 meters distance at the NCAA Indoor Championships, and set college records in several other events around that distance. He only just turned professional earlier this summer, and quickly made an impact, qualifying for the US team at Worlds after finishing second in the men’s 1500m at this year’s national championships.
The 1500m event at Worlds featured three rounds of races. Strand placed third in his opening round heat, needing to finish in the top six to advance on to the semifinals. It was a close call, though, as the top 11 in his heat were separated by under three seconds. Unfortunately, he then finished in eighth place in his semifinals heat, again needing to finish in the top six to move on. Despite that, it was another very close call, as he finished less than half a second back of sixth in his particular heat. It’s not exactly a good comparison, considering that distance races are tactical and can be run very differently heat-to-heat depending on who’s racing, but Strand’s semifinal time was actually better than that of eventual gold medalist: Isaac Nader of Portugal.
The other Tar Heel to go to Tokyo was Madison Wiltrout, competing in the women’s javelin throw. The 36 entrants in the javelin event were split into two 18-athlete heats, with the top 12 moving on to the final. Wiltrout finished ninth in her particular heat, missing out on the final. Not unlike Strand, though, her 59.58 meter mark wasn’t actually that far away from qualification for the final. The distance was a ways from the eventual winner’s — Juleisy Angulo of Ecuador — mark, but she wasn’t too far from getting to compete for the gold medal in the final.
I’m sure if you asked either athlete, they probably would’ve hoped for more and a better finish in their respective event, but they still got to compete against the best in the world, and that’s a thing that UNC track and field athletes haven’t always been able to pull off. Congrats to them, and hopefully there are even better finishes on the horizon.
