Are the GB & NI team's modest results at the World Champs cause for concern? Tokyo aside, some interesting clues can be found in UK Athletics' own stats website.

After the British athletics team finished 21st on the 2025 World Champs medals table and failed to win a gold medal for the first time since Paris in 2003, is this a worrying sign of decline or merely a blip in an otherwise upward trajectory?

As with most statistics, you can make an argument either way. Critics can point to the fact Botswana, Tanzania and Ecuador finished above Britain in the medals table. But more positive and optimistic fans will say that Britain finishing fourth equal in the points table with Germany on 66 points (with points awarded from first down to eighth place) behind only Jamaica (98), Kenya (118) and the United States (308).

Britain wasn’t the only nation to endure a frustrating championship in Tokyo either. The Brits won three silver and two bronze medals but Ethiopia only won four minor medals just three years after topping the medals table at the World Indoor Champs.

What's more, Poland won one solitary silver medal. Germany, an athletics superpower of similar standing to Britain over the years, won the same number of medals as Britain but with one difference, they captured an all-important gold courtesy of Leo Neugebauer in the decathlon.

As Max Jones, the former UKA head coach at the turn of the millennium, was fond of saying: “A gold medal a day keeps the press away.”

Malcolm Arnold, the British head coach at the 1996 Olympics, discovered this in painful fashion when his team were criticised for winning six medals, crucially none of which were gold, at the Atlanta Games.

Dave Collins, the UKA performance director from 2005-2008, was put under similar pressure and left his role amid severe criticism after being lambasted for modest World Championship medal tallies in Helsinki and Osaka (see the table below) plus a disappointing European Champs performance in Gothenburg in 2006 where Britain won only one gold and 10 minor medals.

Britain won one gold and eight medals in total at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing as well, which on the face of it doesn’t seem too bad, but with a home Olympics in London fast approaching it wasn’t deemed good enough – and Collins was replaced by Charles van Commenee. The results of GB teams during Collins' reign have improved over time, however, due to the knowledge that, among other things, Russians were benefiting from doping.

Certainly the current UKA head coach, Paula Dunn, should not be getting too nervous about her role just yet. It is only two years since Britain won two golds, three silvers and five bronze medals at the World Champs in Budapest. Last year the British team also enjoyed its best results at an Olympics for 40 years with 10 medals in Paris.

To be fair, the class of 2025 was bedevilled by bad luck too. From Molly Caudery's freak injury during pole vault warm up, to Josh Kerr's calf injury in his 1500m semi-final to Emile Cairess suddenly blowing a gasket when nicely positioned in the latter stages of the marathon, things largely didn't go Britain's way.

The relays, which are so often a happy hunting ground for British athletes, were pretty disastrous in Tokyo, too, summed up by the men's 4x100m baton bungle.

New team sponsor Novuna will have been wishing for better results on its debut. Still, there have been worse performances in the past, as can be seen below.

British medals at the World Champs

Event / gold / silver / bronze
Tokyo 2025 – 0, 3, 2
Budapest 2023 – 2, 3, 5
Eugene 2022 – 1, 1, 5
Doha 2019 – 2, 3, 0
London 2017 – 2, 3, 1
Beijing 2015 – 4, 1, 2
Moscow 2013 – 3, 1, 3
Daegu 2011 – 3, 3, 2
Berlin 2009 – 2, 2, 3
Osaka 2007 – 1, 1, 4
Helsinki 2005 – 1, 0, 2
Paris 2003 – 0, 1, 2
Edmonton 2001 – 1, 0, 1
Seville 1999 – 1, 4, 2
Athens 1997 – 1, 4, 1
Gothenburg 1995 – 1, 3, 1
Stuttgart 1993 – 3, 3, 4
Tokyo 1991 – 2, 2, 3
Rome 1987 – 1, 3, 4
Helsinki 1983 – 2, 2, 3

Major championships aside, is athletics in the UK on the rise or fall? There are many ways to judge this, but one method is to look at the governing body’s own stats website, Power of 10, to offer some clues.

When Power of 10 was created in 2006, the idea was that the 10th best ranking in a particular event, whether it was at club, regional or national level, would provide a more accurate picture of the health of a particular event. The ambition was to try to drive up this ‘10th best mark’ in every club or region across the country to improve standards. Hence the name “Power of 10”.

Next year Power of 10 celebrates its 20th anniversary. So it is interesting to look at the 10th best marks for senior men and women from 2006 compared to the 2025 figures.

Bear in mind the 2025 season hasn’t quite ended yet, although it’s fair to assume there won’t be too many impactful performances from October to December.

Super shoes and spikes have skewed the rankings in running events – especially over longer distances – as well.

Finally, we would hope standards have indeed risen in British athletics over the last 19-20 years but they will also have risen globally.

Here are the stats…

10th best performances in British athletics in 2006 and 2025 with the superior mark in bold

Men

100m

2006: 10.34 | 2025: 10.17

200m

2006: 20.98 | 2025: 20.70

400m

2006: 46.67 | 2025: 45.80

800m

2006: 1:47.20 | 2025: 1:45.01

1500m

2006: 3:41.14 | 2025: 3:35.22

5000m

2006: 13:54.66 | 2025: 13:29.10

10,000m

2006: 30:07.11 | 2025: 28:52.25

Marathon

2006: 2:19:16 | 2025: 2:14:46

110m hurdles

2006: 14.12 | 2025: 14.18

400m hurdles

2006: 51.52 | 2025: 50.48

3000m steeplechase

2006: 8:47.86 | 2025: 8:49.86

High jump

2006: 2.16m | 2025: 2.11m

Pole vault

2006: 5.10m | 2025: 5.10m

Long jump

2006: 7.45m | 2025: 7.65m

Triple jump

2006: 15.38m | 2025: 15.37m

Shot put

2006: 16.78m | 2025: 16.21m

Discus

2006: 52.71m | 2025: 55.07m

Hammer

2006: 62.42m | 2025: 66.08m

Javelin

2006: 67.94m | 2025: 69.45m

20km race walk

2006: 1:41:20 | 2025: No mark

Decathlon

2006: 6659 | 2025: 7161

Women

100m

2006: 11.57 | 2025: 11.26

200m

2006: 23.56 | 2025: 22.98

400m

2006: 53.46 | 2025: 52.08

800m

2006: 2:02.79 | 2025: 2:00.81

1500m

2006: 4:12.76 | 2025: 4:06.45

5000m

2006: 16:04.46 | 2025: 15:10.35

10,000m

2006: 34:35.16 | 2025: 33:12.54

Marathon

2006: 2:41:48 | 2025: 2:33:31

100m hurdles

2006: 13.79 | 2025: 13.41

400m hurdles

2006: 58.74 | 2025: 59.39

3000m steeplechase

2006: 10:24.29 | 2025: 10:10.88

High jump

2006: 1.80m | 2025: 1.81m

Pole vault

2006: 3.90m | 2025: 3.87m

Long jump

2006: 6.24m | 2025: 6.42m

Triple jump

2006: 12.82m | 2025: 12.73m

Shot put

2006: 14.27m | 2025: 15.02m

Discus

2006: 47.64m | 2025: 46.77m

Hammer

2006: 57.31m | 2025: 59.58m

Javelin

2006: 46.68m | 2025: 47.92m

20km race walk

2006: 2:07:16 | 2025: No mark

Heptathlon

2006: 5299 | 2025: 5470

Some quick takeaways from this simple survey. Firstly, 14 men’s events in 2025 are better than they were in 2006 but six events from 2006 are superior to this year's marks.

In women’s athletics, 17 events in 2025 are better than they were in 2006 but there are three events in 2006 which are better than they are today.

Generally, female athletes have enjoyed a greater improvement in the past two decades. Also, all of the 'running events' are better today than they were in 2006, with a number of them having improved by a considerable amount, no doubt partly due to footwear.

Overall, therefore, the picture is one of steady progress. So don't be surprised to see a British gold rush at the European Champs on home soil in Birmingham next year.