World athletics championships coverage
The World Championships is always a great sporting spectacle and Osaka promises to be no different. We'll savour some epic confrontations, cheer on old favourites to glory and watch the emergence of those new stars set to dominate in the future. However, our enjoyment will always be affected, to a greater or lesser extent, by the performance of British athletes on the global stage, and it has to be said that the omens are not good.
Nobody can accuse UK Athletics of not being ambitious and they have set a target for the team of 14 finalists (top eight) and three medals. However, that has to be achieved by a team badly affected by injuries and without potential medal prospects such as Paula Radcliffe. The team have been acclimatising in Macau at the preparation camp which the British Olympic Association will use next year for many of the sports, including athletics. As I was able to see for myself recently, facilities are very good and, most importantly, the high heat and humidity are very similar to the weather the athletes will encounter in Japan.
It will be a tall order for UK athletes to reach their target and we, in common with all other sections of the media, will follow their progress closely. We will aim to be nothing other than constructive and fair but we will also need to place the team's achievements in the context of public expectation. Hopes are high with London 2012 and the Beijing Olympics, which will be this time next year.
The tone may well be set on the first couple of days next weekend. Two of our world ranked athletes, Kelly Sotherton and Jessica Ennis compete in the heptathlon against the legendary Carolina Kluft. We will also watch with interest as Marlon Devonish, Craig Pickering and Mark Lewis-Francis come up against the world's best in the men's 100 metres.
Throughout the championships, the BBC will have a strong team of pundits and analysts to guide you through all the events, led as always by the peerless Michael Johnson. And there are three other world champions in our squad: Steve Cram, Jonathan Edwards and Colin Jackson.
More than 50 hours of coverage is planned across BBC ONE and TWO. With Osaka eight hours ahead of the UK, the daily pattern of coverage features live action in the early hours and again from late morning through to early afternoon. The daytime programme will be presented by Sue Barker with Colin Jackson, Michael Johnson and Denise Lewis (for the duration of the heptathlon) in our studio in London.
Overnight action will be introduced by Phil Jones trackside in Osaka. Hazel then presents an early evening highlights package on BBC TWO.
The commentary team in Japan is led by Steve Cram with Stuart Storey, Paul Dickenson, Jonathan Edwards and Brendan Foster, with Phil also interviewing the athletes.
There will also be a BBCi service with an extensive highlights and repeats package. From 0600 BST viewers will be able to see highlights of the overnight action, at 1700 BST we will premiere the evening highlights with Hazel Irvine, and at 1900 BST a complete repeat of the daytime programme. The repeat ensures that anyone who has been at work can catch up on any of the action they may have missed.
BBC Radio 5live will also bring all the latest news from Osaka with regular live uninterrupted commentary on 5live sports extra. Mike Costello heads the team along with former world record holder and Olympic and World silver medallist (and veteran of six world championships) Steve Backley and European and Commonwealth 400m medal winner Allison Curbishley.
A special World Championship preview edition of 5live Track & Field will broadcast on 5live sport from 7pm on Thursday 23 August, with top guest’s including Olympic medal winning 400m runner Katherine Merry.
The BBC Sport website has a site dedicated to covering the World Championships at bbc.kongjiang.org/www.bbc.co.uk/athletics. Aside from all of the latest news and features the site will bring a combination of live text as well as full interactive multi-screen and web streaming of the whole event.
In addition the site will carry video on-demand (full details TBC) and video master classes with a number of athletics stars from the UK and across the world including: Jade Johnson, Tim Benjamin, Marlon Devonish, Goldie Sayers, Phillips Idowu, Carolina Kluft, Asafa Powell. Plus there'll be the regular columns and opinion pieces by some of the BBC’s top athletics names such as Steve Cram and Colin Jackson.
