The 15th World Championships in Athletics were held 22–30 August 2015 in Beijing, China. 43 nations won medals, 144 of which were awarded. Kenya topped the medal table for the first time, with 7 gold, 6 silver and 3 bronze medals. The United States won 18 medals, six gold, six silver and six bronze, which was the highest tally. Host nation China, finished 11th on the medals table, while Russia, the overall winner and host in 2013, finished ninth.
205 IAAF member countries and territories participated, two more than in 2013, with new IAAF member, Kosovo, making its debut. South Sudan was also set to participate for the first time, but its sole athlete did not show up in Beijing.
Eritrea won their first world title at these championships, with Ghirmay Ghebreslassie winning the men's marathon.
The event was the largest sporting event to take place at the Beijing National Stadium ("Bird's Nest") since the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Bidding process
When the seeking deadline passed on 15 March 2010, three candidate cities (Beijing, London and Chorzów) had confirmed their candidatures. London then withdrew citing that they didn't want to seem to be biased towards the bids for the Olympic Stadium by committing themselves to an athletics event, as the host for this event was to be announced before their 2011 stadium bid deadline. London then stated that they would bid for 2017 and had the blessing of the IAAF to do so. The IAAF announced Beijing as the winning candidate at the IAAF Council Meeting in Monaco on 20 November 2010. The Council of IAAF approved the dates of 22 August until 30 August 2015.
The 3rd World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held in the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo, Japan between August 23 and September 1 and athletes from 167 countries participated in the event.
The event is best-remembered for the men's long jump competition, when Carl Lewis made the best six-jump series in history, only to be beaten by Mike Powell, whose 8.95 m jump broke Bob Beamon's long-standing world record from the 1968 Summer Olympics.
Men's results
Track
1983 | 1987 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995
Field
1983 | 1987 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995
Women's results
Track
1983 | 1987 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995
Field
1983 | 1987 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995
Note: * Indicates athletes who only ran in the preliminary round and also received medals.
Medal table by country
See also
The inaugural World Championships in Athletics were run under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations and were held at the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki, Finland between August 7 and August 14, 1983.
The overall medal table was a closely contested affair. East Germany took the most gold medals (10) over the first championships and finished with a total of 22 medals. The United States had the next largest number of golds, with eight, and also had the greatest overall medal haul, having won 24 medals altogether. The Soviet Union won one more medal than the East Germans and had six golds, although almost half of their podium finishers were bronze medalists. Twenty-five nations reached the medal tally at the inaugural competition, with all six continents being represented. During the early 1980s this was the top venue in which Soviet Bloc athletes competed against American athletes due to the American-led boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow and the retaliatory Soviet Bloc boycott of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.
The 4th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held in the Gottlieb Daimler Stadium, Stuttgart, Germany between August 13 and August 22 with the participation of 187 nations.
The 1993 World Championships was the final time the women's 3000 m would be contested. At subsequent Championships the race was replaced by the longer 5000 m.
Men's results
Track
1987 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995 | 1997
Field
1987 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995 | 1997
1 Michael Stulce of the United States originally finished third, but was disqualified after testing positive for excess testosterone and mestenolone.