By Our Correspondent
The World Athletics has unveiled the qualification standards for the 2027 World Athletics Championships scheduled to hold in Beijing, China, setting the benchmark athletes across the world must attain to secure automatic qualification for the competition.
The qualification marks, released ahead of the global championship, underline the increasing level of competitiveness expected at Beijing 2027, with elite performances required across track, field and road events.
In the sprint events, male athletes will need to clock 9.95 seconds in the 100 metres and 20.07 seconds in the 200 metres, while the women’s qualifying standards are 10.96 seconds and 22.45 seconds respectively.
For the 400 metres, the men’s qualifying mark is 44.45 seconds, while women are expected to run 50.00 seconds to gain automatic entry.
Middle and long-distance events also feature demanding standards. Athletes targeting the men’s 1500m must run 3:30.00, while the women’s qualification standard is 3:58.00. In the 5000m, the entry marks are 12:50.00 for men and 14:36.00 for women.
The marathon qualification standards have been fixed at 2:06:00 for men and 2:23:20 for women, reflecting the high level of endurance competition anticipated in Beijing.
Field event athletes are also faced with stiff requirements. The men’s high jump standard is set at 2.30m compared to 1.96m for women, while long jump athletes must achieve 8.25m and 6.86m respectively.
In the throwing events, men will need 85.50m in the javelin and 78.30m in the hammer throw, while women must record 63.40m and 74.00m respectively.
For the combined events, athletes will target 8,620 points in the decathlon and 6,550 points in the heptathlon to secure qualification.
World Athletics stated that for the 2027 Championships, about 40 per cent of athletes will qualify through entry standards, while 60 per cent will gain qualification through the world rankings system.
The released standards are expected to shape preparations for athletes and federations worldwide as they begin the race toward qualification for one of athletics’ biggest global stages.
According to World Athletics, the approach is designed to ensure that the championships continue to attract the world’s leading athletes across all disciplines, while recognising both exceptional individual performances and consistent high-level competition throughout the qualification period.
For all other disciplines, entry standards can be achieved between August 23, 2026 and midnight of August 22, 2027.
World Athletics also noted that, for entry standard purposes, performances must mainly be achieved at Category C competitions and above to ensure the marks are recorded in meetings where minimum competition standards have been met.
