World athletics championships coverage
The is always a great sporting spectacle and promises to be no different. We'll savour some epic confrontations, to glory and watch the emergence of those set to dominate in the future. However, our enjoyment will always be affected, to a greater or lesser extent, by the performance of British athletes on the global stage, and it has to be said that the omens are not good.
Nobody can accuse of not being ambitious and they have set a target for the team of 14 finalists (top eight) and three medals. However, that has to be achieved by a team badly affected by injuries and without potential medal prospects such as . The team have been acclimatising in at the preparation camp which the will use next year for many of the sports, including athletics. As I was able to see for myself recently, facilities are very good and, most importantly, the high heat and humidity are very similar to the weather the athletes will encounter in Japan.
It will be a tall order for UK athletes to reach their target and we, in common with all other sections of the media, will follow their progress closely. We will aim to be nothing other than constructive and fair but we will also need to place the team's achievements in the context of public expectation. Hopes are high with and , which will be this time next year.
The tone may well be set on the first couple of days next weekend. Two of our world ranked athletes, and compete in the heptathlon against the legendary . We will also watch with interest as , and come up against the .
Throughout the championships, the 91Èȱ¬ will have a strong team of pundits and analysts to guide you through all the events, led as always by . And there are three other world champions in our squad: , and Colin Jackson.
More than . With Osaka eight hours ahead of the UK, the daily pattern of coverage features live action in the early hours and again from late morning through to early afternoon. The daytime programme will be presented by Sue Barker with Colin Jackson, Michael Johnson and Denise Lewis (for the duration of the heptathlon) in our studio in London.
Overnight action will be introduced by Phil Jones trackside in Osaka. Hazel then presents an early evening highlights package on 91Èȱ¬ TWO.
The commentary team in Japan is led by Steve Cram with Stuart Storey, Paul Dickenson, Jonathan Edwards and Brendan Foster, with Phil also interviewing the athletes.
There will also be a 91Èȱ¬i service with an extensive highlights and repeats package. From 0600 BST viewers will be able to see highlights of the overnight action, at 1700 BST we will premiere the evening highlights with Hazel Irvine, and at 1900 BST a complete repeat of the daytime programme. The repeat ensures that anyone who has been at work can catch up on any of the action they may have missed.
91Èȱ¬ Radio 5live will also bring all the latest news from Osaka with regular live uninterrupted commentary on 5live sports extra. Mike Costello heads the team along with former world record holder and Olympic and World silver medallist (and veteran of six world championships) and European and Commonwealth 400m medal winner .
A special World Championship preview edition of 5live Track & Field will broadcast on 5live sport from 7pm on Thursday 23 August, with top guest’s including Olympic medal winning 400m runner .
The has a site dedicated to covering the World Championships at . Aside from all of the latest news and features the site will bring a combination of live text as well as full interactive multi-screen and web streaming of the whole event.
In addition the site will carry video on-demand (full details TBC) and with a number of athletics stars from the UK and across the world including: , , Marlon Devonish, Goldie Sayers, , Carolina Kluft, . Plus there'll be the regular columns and opinion pieces by some of the 91Èȱ¬â€™s top athletics names such as Steve Cram and Colin Jackson.
