Next September we'll welcome the 2027 World Athletics Championships in Beijing — the first time the event returns to the capital since 2015. As the host nation, which athletes will represent China has become a major focus.
World Athletics has now published the qualification standards for each event. We'll walk you through how to qualify and which athletes have already locked in places.
01
Four main ways to qualify
At the Beijing World Championships,each country may enter up to 3 athletes per event (4 with a wild card).The main ways to obtain qualification are:
02
Qualification window for achieving standards
Across events, the start and end dates and the lengths of the qualifying windows vary. For marathon,long-distance, race walk, combined events and relays the period is 18 months, while for other events it is one year.
Marathon
Start and end dates: 2025.11.03 — 2027.05.02
Start and end dates: 2026.02.23 — 2027.08.22
Other events:Sprints, middle‑ and long‑distance, hurdles, jumps, throws, etc.
Start and end dates: 2026.08.23 — 2027.08.22
Because the deadline is earlier than for other events, marathoners have less than 10 months remaining to achieve the standard.
03
Qualification standards
InWorld Athleticsofficial documents, performance cut‑offs are specified. During the eligibility period mentioned above, individual athletes whose competition results meet those cut‑offs are deemed "qualified to participate in the World Championships".
For team relay events, qualification is awarded to the top 12 teams in the corresponding event at the 2026 World Athletics Relays (8 finalists + 4 teams determined via the repechage), andthe remaining 4 places go to the four highest‑ranked teams in the world rankings as of 22 August 2027.
In addition, World Athletics sets several mandatory requirements for qualification:
04
Which Chinese athletes have already qualified?
Currently, three athletes have qualified in the marathon.
Female athletesZhang Deshun, Li Meizhensecured "direct" qualification with top-five finishes at Platinum Label races; the two finished fifth in the women's race respectively — Zhang Deshun at last year's Shanghai Marathon and Li Meizhen at this year's Xiamen Marathon — and both performances fell within the qualification window.
"Marathon king"Feng Peiyouclocked 2:05:58 at this year's Tokyo Marathon, comfortably surpassing the World Athletics marathon "2:06" qualifying standard.
In racewalking, it is currently the biggest source of qualifiers. Male racewalkerShi Shengji, thanks to an outstanding performance in Taicang this March, achieved the qualifying mark in the half-marathon racewalk; on the women's side, there are as many as13 athletes, including Jiang Yunyan and Chen Mengyuanwho have met the qualifying standards in the half- or full-marathon racewalk events.
In addition,At this year'sWorld Athletics Relays, the Chinese team has already secured World Championships qualification in the men's 4×100 m relay and the women's 4×100 m relay.
It should be noted that,World Athletics is responsible for issuing the rules and determining which athletes are eligible as candidates for the World Championships; each country's athletics federation will decide which specific athletes to send.
Because the qualifying window for most events will not officially open until August 23 next month, it is expected that more athletes will gradually reach the qualifying marks, and top competitors like 严子怡 will continue to deliver surprise performances. We wish China's track and field athletes outstanding results during the upcoming qualification period, that they realize their World Championships dreams and let Chinese athletics shine!
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Text/Editor: HP
Image source: Pao Ye Da Bao Zha
Visuals: Max
