Hosts China have assembled 73 athletes on their team for the IAAF World Championships, Beijing 2015, their largest ever squad at a world championships, spearheaded by a group of elite race walkers including Olympic champion Chen Ding and world record-holder Liu Hong.

Pole vaulters Li Ling and Zhang Wei provided the highlights of the three-day 2015 Chinese Championships at the National Stadium, which is almost better known as the Bird’s Nest stadium, on Monday (29).

The topic of icons is not one you would necessarily associate with an athletics press conference, but icons got a fair old work-out in Shanghai on Saturday ahead of the IAAF Diamond League meeting on Sunday (17).

After winning at two indoor meetings during a brief sojourn in Europe last week, in Poland and France, Chinese long jumper Li Jinzhe returned to Beijing on Monday (9).

Ehsan Hadidi got Iran’s first gold medal of the athletics programme when he won the men's discus for the third successive Games on the fourth day of the athletics at the Asian Games in the South Korean city of Inchon on Tuesday (30).

Caterine Ibarguen produced the best triple jump of the past six years to earn a dramatic victory at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Monaco’s Stade Louis II, registering 15.31m to put her fifth on the world all-time list on Friday (18).

The qualifying distance was set at 8.05m and the first man to nail it was not one of the fancied pre-championship medal contenders but a man who instantly catapulted himself into local athletics folklore: Adrian Strzalkowski.

Michel Torneus has won the long jump on home soil at the XL Galan for the past three years and he will be looking for a fourth consecutive victory at the IAAF Indoor Permit meeting in Stockholm on 6 February.

The 12th National Games got off to a real start on Sunday (8) in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, with a total of 13 finals during the second day of competition following the two finals on Saturday.

Aleksandr Menkov is one of Russia’s big hopes for a home success in Moscow. The European indoor champion has been a model of consistency this season, but he is far from the only gold-medal contender.

All five of China’s reigning global medallists in race walking events have been named on the team for the 2013 IAAF World Championships in Moscow.

The 2013 IAAF World Challenge Beijing, the first athletics meeting held at the Bird’s Nest Stadium since the 2008 Olympics, sent a clear message on Tuesday (21) evening in warm and nice weather.