Beijing The pantomime showdown is a now just a day away after the good and the bad, the clean and the dirty of athletics both made it through their heats without a hitch.

Unfavourable weather in Beijing turned to be the spoiler in the men's Marathon final of the 15th IAAF World Championship in its starting day where Sri Lankan marathoner Anuradha Indrajith Cooray finished in 29th position with a time of 2 hours 25 minutes 03 seconds.

On the eve of the World Championships, which get under way on Saturday, Bolt also pledged to show he is back to his best despite a low-key 2015 to date.

South Africa's justice minister has blocked the early release of athlete Oscar Pistorius from prison on Friday.

London 2012 Olympic 1500m champion Asli Cakir Alptekin has been stripped of her gold medal for doping.

Six-times Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt will miss Jamaica's training camp in Japan before the world athletics championships in Beijing later this month, the manager of the Caribbean island's delegation said.

From Usain Bolt and Justin Gatlin going head to head to Mo Farah looking to do the double, here’s the pick of the competition at the world championships

Twenty-eight athletes who competed at the 2005 and 2007 World Championships have returned "adverse findings" from retested samples, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has said.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) is to begin an "urgent" investigation into allegations of widespread doping in athletics.

A year from the start of the next Games in Brazil, the country seems to have learnt nothing from the experience of staging the World Cup. Ewan MacKenna visits the favelas where the cost of the get-rich-quick schemes is highest

The International Olympic Committee will act with "zero tolerance" should allegations of widespread doping in athletics be proven, says president Thomas Bach.