2023 World Athletics Championships: Dates, schedule, history & athletes to watch

The best athletes on the globe will compete in the 19th World Athletics Championships, which take place in Hungary in August 2023.

The National Athletics Centre in Budapest will play host to the majority of the track and field events, with 49 titles up for grabs.

The USA finished top of the medal table last year in Oregon, with 33 in total, while Team GB & Northern Ireland finished 11th after collecting one gold, one silver and five bronze medals.

What	2023 World Athletics Championships
Where	Budapest, Hungary
When	Saturday, 19th August - Sunday, 27th August 2023
How to watch	BBC One, BBC Two, Eurosport
Odds	Men's 100m – Fred Kerley 13/5, Noah Lyles 9/2, Letsile Tebogo 11/2, Zharnel Hughes 11/2

When is the World Athletics Championships?

The latest edition of the World Athletics Championships will begin on Saturday, 19th August with the final day of competition on Sunday, 27th August.

Where is the World Athletics Championships being held?

The World Championships will be held in the Hungarian capital, Budapest – which has never previously hosted the event.

The National Athletics Centre, which is set on the banks of the River Danube, will be able to hold 34,000 spectators for the Championships.

Can I watch the World Athletics Championships?

The 2023 event can be watched on the UK across the BBC, on TV and iPlayer, plus there will also be coverage on Eurosport.

How many times have the World Athletics Championships taken place?

This is the 19th edition of the Championships, which began back in 1983 when Helsinki in Finland was the first host city.

This year will be the 12th time the World Championships has taken place in Europe, with Finland and Germany hosting the high-profile event on two occasions.

Who has enjoyed the most success at the World Athletics Championships?

The USA have won more World Championship medals than any other nation, with 414 in total – that's 253 more than second-placed Kenya.

Russia (142), Jamaica (137) and Germany (123) make up the rest of the top five, although Germany are fourth having won more gold medals than Jamaica.

Great Britain & Northern Ireland are seventh in the standings, with 31 gold, 37 silver and 43 bronze making up a total of 111 medals won.

American superstar Allyson Felix is the most successful athlete in the World Championships, with 20 medals to her name including 14 golds.

Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce is second on the individual list, having won ten golds and four silvers, while her fellow Jamaican Usain Bolt leads the men's standings, with nine medals.

Athletes to watch in 2023

The 100m remains Athletics' blue riband event and this year's battle for gold looks to be between two Americans.

Fred Kerley, the defending champion, and Noah Lyles have both clocked sub-10 second times in this season's Diamond League. Kerley is 13/5 to take the title again, while Lyles can be backed at 9/2.

Meanwhile, Fraser-Pryce ran a championship record when winning gold in the women's 100m Oregon in 2022 and the 36-year-old is 11/10 to win another gold in Budapest.

Norwegian star Jakob Ingebrigtsen is expected to go for a track double, having just missed out on two golds in the 2022 event.

The 22-year-old won gold in the 5000m in Eugene before having to settle for silver in the 1500m, in which he is 1/6 to win the title in Budapest.

It could be a World Championships to remember for Norway, with the impressive Karsten Warholm also odds-on (1/5) to win the 400m Hurdles.

Great Britain's best hope of a gold medal looks to come in the women's 800m, with both Keely Hodgkinson and Jemma Reekie delivering on the world stage this year. Hodgkinson has the world's fastest time whilst Reekie claimed victory in the Diamond League event in London in July.