Allegany native to compete in 3000 steeple in Tokyo

By all accounts, the World Athletics Championships mark the highest level of senior international outdoor competition for track and field athletes, second only to the Olympics in prestige and significance.

It will, undoubtedly, be the most premiere track event of the year.

And it’s the latest realm that Angelina Napoleon has reached on her impressive track and field journey.

Napoleon is set to compete in her marquee event, the women’s 3000-meter steeplechase, at the 2025 World Athletics Championships, scheduled for Sept. 13-21 in Tokyo, Japan. The preliminary round, featuring a jam-packed field of 38 worldwide competitors divided into three heats, is slated for Sunday night at 9:30 p.m. EST (10:30 a.m. Monday morning in Japan). The final will be held on Wednesday at 8:57 a.m. (9:57 p.m. in Japan).

 

FOR NAPOLEON, who, in just over two years, has risen from Allegany-Limestone graduate to Division I standout to the world stage, it’s already been a storybook season.

Napoleon won an Atlantic Coast Conference championship with North Carolina State in May, finished third at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in June and set a personal best with a blazing time of 9:10.72 at her senior international debut — the Wanda Diamond League’s Paris event — in early August.

On August 2, she placed second at the US Outdoor Championships, behind only collegiate rival (and now US teammate) Lexy Halladay, in 9:10.96, qualifying her for Worlds (by both finishing in the top three and eclipsing the world standard of 9:18.0) and setting the stage for next week.

Napoleon’s mere presence in Japan is, of course, an accomplishment in itself.

The World Championships represent the upper-most echelon, boasting roughly 2,000 athletes from nearly 200 countries aiming to bring home a medal and prove themselves as the best in the world.

But for the NC State junior, this isn’t a case of “I’m just happy to be here.” She’s set a tangible goal of reaching Wednesday’s steeplechase championship, which will ostensibly require finishing in the top five of her heat, thereby whittling the field from 38 competitors to a final group of 15.

And while Napoleon knows that won’t be easy, her camp also understands:

It’s doable.

 

THIS YEAR’S field is highlighted by three of the four fastest steeplechase runners in history: World champion and Paris Olympics gold medalist Winfred Yavi, of Bahrain; Tokyo gold and Paris silver medalist Peruth Chemutai, of Uganda, and Kenya’s World and Olympics bronze medalist Faith Cherotich. All three, incredibly, have sub-8:49.0 personal bests.

In total, the list includes six competitors with sub-9:00 PRs, including a familiar name: Alabama’s Doris Lemngole, a Kenyan who topped Napoleon and Halladay for the NCAA crown in June. And those will be the front-runners for a World Championships medal.

Beyond them, however, is a sizable group which will presumably be competing for the final 9-10 slots in Wednesday’s final.

And Napoleon figures to be in that pack.

The Allegany native, one of four Americans competing, alongside Halladay and Kaylee Mitchell, who finished first and third, respectively, at the U.S. Trials, and Kristlin Gear, who qualified separately, enters Sunday’s preliminary with the 12th-best time in the world in 2025 — the 9:10.72 she ran in Paris. She also owns the 15th-best PR of all 38 steeplechase competitors and ranks No. 21 internationally overall, per worldathletics.org.

By black and white numbers alone, she seems to stand a good chance of advancing.

Still, this will no doubt be her biggest track challenge to date.

 

AT THE LAST World Championships, in 2023, only one of three Americans advanced to the final — Olympian Courtney Wayment. That year, even in the more methodical first round, one needed to achieve at least a 9:24.28 to move on. Since then, times have only gotten faster universally. So, there’s a good chance that to reach the top five (in each heat) this year, participants will need to run the world standard or better.

Napoleon, though, has managed that in each of her last three outings, from her 9:16.66 at the NCAA Championships to her 9:10.72 in Paris to her 9:10.96 at the USATF Championships. And now, feeling good and fully healthy heading into Worlds, she’ll aim to do the same this weekend in Japan.

The World Championships can be viewed live on NBC’s peacocktv.com or by signing up for World Athletics+. Additional coverage can be found on NBC, CNBC and USA Network at varying times.