Throwers and sprinters fight for top billing in star-studded athletics roster

BOCHUM - From decorated Olympians to defending champions, and everything in between, the field for athletics at the Rhine-Ruhr 2025 FISU World University Games has it all.

But even among the array of standout performers who will don their spikes over seven days of competition (21-27 July), there are names that deserve immediate attention.

For starters, you do not want to miss Cierra Jackson (USA) versus Antonia Kinzel (GER) in the women’s discus on 24 July.

Jackson, 22, has already had quite a summer. She set a championship record of 65.82 metres on her way to grabbing the prestigious 2025 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championship title. That prompted the former Fresno State athlete to turn professional and then, in her first outing as a full-time athlete, Jackson improved her personal best (PB) to 67.82m.

But she will not have it all her own way in the Lohrheidestadion in Bochum, where the crowd will be willing on defending champion Kinzel, who set her own PB of 62.64m in May.

"It's a special feeling to compete in this internationally renowned event in your own country,” Kinzel told ADH last month. “I want to build on my experiences from two years ago in Chengdu, defend my title in the discus throw and am really looking forward to the special atmosphere of the FISU Games, giving a little taste of the Olympics."

‘Wobble Wobble’ set to fly

Kinzel could do worse than turn to Bayanda Walaza (RSA) for insight on what it is like competing on the biggest sporting stage of all.

The South African claimed silver in the men’s 4x100m relay at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Aged just 18, and originally a reserve, Walaza ran the leadoff leg in the final, as South Africa won a first ever medal in the event.

Walaza, who also won the individual sprint double at the U20 World Championships last year, has kicked on this year too. After becoming just the ninth South African to clock under 10 seconds for the 100m, he improved his PB to 9.94 seconds in Zagreb in May. Weeks earlier, Walaza set a South Africa junior record of 20.08s in the 200m.

Both PBs meet the qualification criteria for the senior World Athletics Championships, taking place in Tokyo in September.

Walaza has also earned the nickname ‘Wobble Wobble’ due to an unorthodox running style, with his arms often flailing as he nears the finish line.

“When I train, I don't usually run the way I do in competition,” he told Olympics.com in May. “My hands are closed. My form is perfect in training. And then it happens in competition.”

Walaza, along with Lythe Pillay (RSA), will be looking to secure a 100m-200m-400m clean sweep, with Pillay the 2022 400m U20 world champion and a reigning World Athletics Relays 4x400m gold medallist.

One of just two South African champions at the Chengdu 2021 FISU World University Games, Marlie Viljoen (RSA) is back after she set a PB of 51.42s in the 400m in March.

Golden time for Italian athletics

FISU Games fans might recognise other returning champions, too, like Laura Pellicoro (ITA). Now 24, she won the middle-distance double two years ago and is part of a stellar Italian lineup.

Dalia Kaddari (ITA) is expected to add to her long list of achievements which already includes: two-time Olympian (Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024), European Championship bronze medal in 2022 (4x100m relay), European U23 champion in 2021 (200m) and Youth Olympic Games silver medal in 2018 (200m).

Edoardo Scotti has been at the centre of an impressive 12 months for Italian athletics. He helped his nation finish sixth in the 4x400m mixed relay and seventh in the men’s 4x400m relay at Paris 2024. Then he inspired the team to double silver in front of a passionate home crowd in the 4x400m mixed and 4x400m men’s relays at the 2024 European Championships in Rome.

Storylines on and off the track

Not all the headlines during the 51 athletics events will be made by performances on the track and field.

Just eight years ago, Arman Shahzadeh (CAN) feared he would never run again while undergoing emergency treatment for aggressive throat cancer. Now, he will go for long jump glory on the back of a PB of 7.61m set just a few days ago.

India’s Pooja Singh (IND) has also overcome hurdles to arrive in Germany as the newly crowned women’s Asian high jump champion. Just 1.70m tall, Singh grew up in financial hardship in rural India, with her father taking out loans to fund an athletics journey that began with bamboo poles as crossbars and landing mats fashioned from rice husk and hay.

Meanwhile, Bridget Mbwali (UGA), a double sprint gold medal winner at last year’s East Africa University Games, still combines athletics with a fledging football career.

The 19-year-old has pledged to hang up her boots should she follow the example of the USA’s Mike Powell – still the men’s world record holder in the long jump who won gold at the 1987 Universiade.

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