SBS reveals expert commentary team for the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo in September

SBS Australia

a day ago

Every session broadcast live and free on SBS VICELAND and SBS On Demand
World champion Tamsyn Manou and renowned commentator David Basheer will join the doyen of sports commentators Bruce McAvaney as SBS's broadcast team for the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25, which is shaping as a milestone event for an exceptional Australian team.
Every session of the nine-day World Athletics Championships (14 sessions of arena and road events, September 13-21) will be broadcast live and free across SBS VICELAND, and the World Athletics Championships Hub via SBS On Demand, which will also feature daily extended highlights, short clips and full replays of each session.
Lead commentator McAvaney said he was excited to be part of such a skilled and experienced commentary team guiding Australian audiences through this year's world championships, which is regarded as the third-biggest sports event in the world in global reach (over one billion) behind the Olympic Games and FIFA World Cupᵀᴹ.
Triple Olympian Manou, the 2008 world indoor champion over 800m, was a member of the Australian athletics team for more than 15 years and brings to her role both an athlete's insight and deep knowledge of the sport.
Since retiring as an athlete, she has taken that passion for the sport to the commentary box, working with McAvaney at both the 2016 and 2020 Olympic Games and the 2018 and 2022 Commonwealth Games. She also worked as an expert commentator at last year's Olympic Games in Paris.
Manou said: 'I'm delighted to be joining Bruce and David in the SBS commentary team for one of my favourite events on the sports calendar, at a really exciting time for Australian athletics.
'The World Athletics Championships is just pure athletics and as a fan you can really immerse yourself in the sport. I think this is going to be one of the most watched world championships we have had, because the fans can sense that there's something special happening with the Australian team.
'For me, the best thing about these championships is the journey that the athletes take from the heats to the semi-finals to the finals. By broadcasting every session live, SBS will take everyone on that journey from start to finish, and that will allow us to show how amazing these athletes are and to tell their stories. I can't wait for it to start.
For 30 years Basheer has been commentating on international sporting events for SBS. His credits include five World Athletics Championships, 10 FIFA World Cups (men and women), UEFA Champions League finals, and track and road cycling world championships.
For this year's World Athletics Championships, Basheer is excited to be calling field and multi events, where high jump world champions Nicola Olyslagers and Eleanor Patterson, Olympic discus medallist Matt Denny, and world pole vault medallist Kurtis Marschall are certain to feature.
'It's a golden generation of Australian track and field athletes – I'm looking forward to telling some compelling stories and working with a fabulous team,'' Basheer said.
McAvaney added: 'We'll be bringing the best in the world to an Australian audience, and highlighting our great Australian athletes. I've never been more excited by the prospects of the Australian athletics team, not even before the Sydney Olympics. This team has everything – established champions, great young sprinters and incredible middle distance talent. You might have heard me say this before, but this is going to be special.''
SBS Director of Sport Ken Shipp said: 'SBS has broadcast ten editions of the World Athletics Championships since 2001 and we've assembled an expert commentary team for Tokyo that can take our audience right inside the action and tell the stories of the athletes with unmatched depth and enthusiasm. Australian athletics fans won't miss a moment of one of the world's great sporting events on SBS.''
The quality of the likely Australian team for Tokyo, taking on the best from 200-plus nations at Japan's iconic 67,000-set National Stadium, will make this event compelling viewing for Australian sports fans.
With seven medals (one gold, two silver, four bronze) won in Paris last year, the Australian athletics team is coming off its most successful Olympic Games since Melbourne in 1956, and appears to have found another level this year.
The emergence of an exciting generation of sprinters, led by 17-year-old Gout Gout and 21-year-old Lachie Kennedy, who won Australia's first ever 60m medal (silver) at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in March, has added an extra layer of intrigue to what was already a highly successful group.
They will join the likes of Olympic silver medallist Jess Hull, recent national 800m record-breaker Peter Bol, and teenaged middle distance tyros Cameron Myers and Claudia Hollingsworth in a national team that exudes class across the range of disciplines.
See the full schedule for SBS's broadcast of the World Athletics Championships here.
For a pdf of this media release, click here.