Josh Kerr advances to finals with a second place finish in 1500m semis in Tokyo...

TOKYO--Josh Kerr (Paul Merca photo) of Seattle's Brooks Beasts advanced to the finals in the men's 1500 meter semifinals on day three of the World Athletics Championships--Tokyo 2025 contested Monday evening at Japan National Stadium.

Kerr, the defending world champion, controlled the pace from the front, taking the field through 400 on 60.3, and 2:00.08, with former world champion Timothy Cheruiyot of Kenya, and Wanda Diamond league winner Niels Laros of the Netherlands in striking distance.

At 1200, Kerr ramped up the pace, taking it down to 55 seconds on the penultimate 400, but there was a group of ten all waiting to pounce.

Kerr continued to lead coming off the turn, but Laros made a late surge to overtake Kerr in the last five meters, winning the heat in 3:33.50.

The Brooks Beast standout dived at the line but came up short, but ran 3:33.53.

In one of the biggest upsets of the meet so far, New Zealand's Geordie Beamish upset defending world and Olympic champion Soufiane El Bakkali, running a modest 8:33.88.

Ditaji Kamabunji of Switzerland set a national record in winning the women's 100 hurdles in 12.24.

Cal alum Camryn Rogers of Canada repeated as world champion in the hammer, throwing a 2025 world leading mark of 264-1 (80.51m).

Finally, Mondo Duplantis of Sweden won yet another world title, setting another world record with a clearance of 20-8 (6.30m).

Action the next three days will only consist of one session in the evening.

Tuesday night, Washington's Justin O'Toole of Canada, who got into the world championships before the end of the qualifying period last month, runs in the first heat of the men's 800 meters at 7:35 pm local time/3:35 am Pacific time.

O'Toole will need to finish in the top three to guarantee himself a spot in the semifinals on Thursday.

Trey Knight of Ridgefield will throw in the finals of the men's hammer at 9 pm local time/5 am Pacific time.

Peacock and USA Network will provide streaming and on-air coverage of the world track & field championships.

Complete results of Monday night's session are available here on the World Athletics Tokyo 2025 microsite.

NOTE: World Athletics contributed to this report.

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