Record hot temperatures in Japan have forced organisers of the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo to hold the event in September ©Getty Images

Fears over the heat have led Japanese organisers to announce that the 2025 World Athletics Championships will take place in September, despite initial plans to stage the event in August.

World Athletics initially wanted the meet at the National Stadium to be held in late August, but it now been agreed that it will take place between September 13 and 21

The start date will be the second-latest in the 42-year history of the World Championships following the 2019 edition in Doha, which begun on September 27.

Japan's summers are hot, humid, and can be deadly.

It forced the International Olympic Committee to controversially move the marathons and race walks to Sapporo during the re-arranged Olympic Games in Tokyo last year.

Several runners finished in distress at the end of the distance races held on the track during Tokyo 2020. 

Last month, World Athletics President Sebastian Coe had pledged that all the medal events during the World Championships in Tokyo will take place in the Japanese capital.

Several runners, including The Netherlands' Sifan Hassan, winner of the 10,000 metres, finished in distress during Tokyo 2020 due to the hot conditions ©Getty Images
Several runners, including The Netherlands' Sifan Hassan, winner of the 10,000 metres, finished in distress during Tokyo 2020 due to the hot conditions ©Getty Images

This will be the second time that Tokyo has hosted the World Athletics Championships.

In 1991, it started on August 23 and lasted until September 1, and is best remembered for an epic long jump duel between Americans Mike Powell and Carl Lewis, which ended with the former breaking Bob Beamon's 23-year world record with a leap of 8.95 metres.

Tokyo has always had hot and humid temperatures, but after decades of global warming, increases in the frequency of heat waves, and extensive urbanisation, summers there are getting worse.

This summer, Japan suffered under the hottest day yet of its worst heatwave since records began in 1875.

The blistering heat drew official warnings of a looming power shortage and led to calls for people to conserve energy where possible.

Heatwaves in Japan have become more frequent, more intense, and last longer because of human-induced climate change.

Tokyo last hosted the World Athletics Championships in 1991, an event remembered for the United States' Mike Powell breaking the world record in the long jump ©Getty Images
Tokyo last hosted the World Athletics Championships in 1991, an event remembered for the United States' Mike Powell breaking the world record in the long jump ©Getty Images

The decision to award Tokyo the World Championships in 2025 instead of Nairobi in Kenya was taken partly as compensation for the Olympics having to be held behind closed doors due to restrictions imposed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Having also been staged in Osaka in 2007, this will be the third time the World Championships will have taken place in Japan.

Mitsugi Ogata, President of the Japan Association of Athletics Federations, is optimistic that supporters in Tokyo will embrace the World Championships having missed out on the Olympics.

"We will try to gain the understanding and support from Tokyo residents and Japanese citizens as we prepare to stage the meet," he said.

This year's World Championships took place in Oregon in the United States after being postponed last year because the Olympics had been moved to 2021 due to coronavirus.

The 2023 World Championships is scheduled to take place in Budapest, Hungary's capital, for the first time.