At Saturday’s London Diamond League assembly, Ethiopia’s former Olympic champion Spring regarega joined the unique membership of athletes to hit 4 world championship requirements. The 25-year-old dropped practically 5 seconds off his 1,500m private greatest, clocking 3:32.93 for ninth place–just below the three:33.00 commonplace. With that end result, Barega accomplished a uncommon sweep: he now holds qualifying marks in all 4 main distance occasions (1,500m, 5,000m, 10,000m and the marathon) for the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo.
Glasgow. Photograph: Kevin Morris
Barega’s qualifying instances
1,500m – 3:32.93 (commonplace: 3:33.00)
5,000m – 12:51.39 (commonplace: 13:01.00)
10,000m – 26:44.13 (commonplace: 27:00.00)
Marathon – 2:05:15 (commonplace: 2:06:30)
Enjoyable Stats
After working a 3:32.93 PB within the males’s 1500m on the London Diamond League, Ethiopia’s Selemon Barega has now achieved the 2025 Tokyo WC commonplace in 4 occasions: 1500m, 5000m, 10,000m, and marathon! pic.twitter.com/m54WW5khpC– Bizuayehu Wagaw (@ Buzi2011) July 19, 2025
Barega’s 1,500m breakthrough comes simply 5 months after his 2:05:15 marathon debut at February’s Zurich Seville Marathon in Seville, Spain. Add that to his stacked resumé–10,000m Olympic gold (Tokyo 2020), 5,000m world silver (Doha 2019) and 10,000m world bronze (Budapest 2023), 2018 Diamond League ultimate champion at simply 18 years outdated–and also you’d assume he has a assured in.
The world’s commonplace doesn’t assure a ticket
Given the depth of Ethiopian distance working, even being a world-class athlete and securing world-standard instances doesn’t assure you a spot.
Every nation can solely enter three athletes per occasion at a World Championships (and an Olympic Video games). Ethiopia’s distance depth runs so deep that even a four-time qualifier and former Olympic champion like Barega could possibly be left off the staff in a number of occasions.
Right here’s the place Barega stands on the Ethiopian Street to Tokyo leaderboard.
- 1,500m: he’s the one Ethiopian with commonplace–he’s in.
- 5,000m: he’s eighth–which means 5 sooner Ethiopians must decline their spots for him to be chosen.
- 10,000m: he’s third–simply barely protected.
- Marathon: he’s twentieth. Seventeen different Ethiopians would’ve needed to drop out for Barega to even be in consideration. (The deadline for the marathon has already handed and the staff has been named.)
So regardless of Barega hitting commonplace for 4 distance occasions, he received’t be permitted to tackle the quadruple on the World Championships. Both method, seven races over 10 days is an enormous enterprise–one which few, if any, athletes would even take into account trying.
As a substitute, Barega will almost certainly line up for one or two races, relying on what the completion schedule permits, making a uncommon 1,500m-10,000m double his almost certainly path.
