Next September we will host the 2027 World Athletics Championships in Beijing. This will be the top event's return to the capital since 2015. As the host nation, which athletes will represent the country has become a focus of attention.
World Athletics has now published the qualification standards for each event. We'll walk you through how to qualify and which athletes have already secured spots.
01
Four main pathways to qualification
At the Beijing World Championships, each country may enter up to 3 athletes per event (4 with a wildcard), and qualification is mainly obtained via the following methods:
02
Qualification periods
The start and end dates and corresponding durations of the qualification period differ by event. The qualification period is 18 months for marathon, long distance, race walking, combined events and relays, while for other events it is one year.
Marathon
Qualification period: 2025.11.03 — 2027.05.02
Qualification period: 2026.02.23 — 2027.08.22
Other events: sprints, middle-distance, hurdles, jumps, throws, etc.
Qualification period: 2026.08.23 — 2027.08.22
Because the deadline is earlier than for other events, marathoners have less than 10 months left to meet the standard.
03
Entry standards
World Athletics' official documents set the benchmark marks for athletes' performances. If an athlete reaches the standard within the qualification period they obtain eligibility to compete at the World Championships.
For team relay events, qualification is awarded to the top 12 teams in the corresponding events at the 2026 World Athletics Relays (8 finalists plus 4 teams from the repechage), and the next four highest-ranked teams in the world as of 22 August 2027.
In addition, World Athletics has set some hard requirements for eligibility:
04
Which Chinese athletes have already qualified?
So far, three athletes have qualified in the marathon.
Female athletes Zhang Deshun and Li Meizhen secured automatic qualification by finishing in the top five at Platinum Label races — the two each claimed fifth place at the Shanghai Marathon last year and the Xiamen Marathon this year, respectively, and both results fell within the qualification window.
Marathon ace Feng Peiyou cleared the World Athletics marathon '2:06' qualifying mark with his 2:05:58 at this year's Tokyo Marathon.
In race walking, it's currently the biggest source of qualifiers. Men's race walker Shi Shengji achieved the half-marathon race walk standard with an excellent performance in Taicang in March this year; on the women's side, 13 athletes — including Jiang Yunyan and Chen Mengyuan — have met the standard in the half-marathon or marathon race walk events.
Additionally, at this year's World Athletics Relays, China secured World Championship places in both the men's and women's 4×100m relays.
It should be noted that World Athletics sets the rules and determines which athletes are eligible for consideration; the specific selection of which athletes actually compete is decided by each country's athletics federation.
Since the qualification window for most events will officially open next month on August 23, we expect more athletes to reach the entry standards in due course — and top competitors like Yan Ziyi may continue to produce surprise performances. We wish Chinese track and field athletes excellent performances during the remaining qualification period as they pursue their World Championships dreams and shine for Chinese athletics!
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Text/Editor: HP
Image source: Paoye Dabaozha
Visuals: Max
