Australian Athletics has announced its biggest ever team for this month’s World Athletics Championships, with a record 88 athletes heading to Tokyo.

Five Olympic medallists are among those athletes, including dual Olympic medallist and freshly crowned Diamond League Champion in high jump, Nina Olyslagers. She heads to Tokyo as Australia’s best chance at a gold medal, after her Diamond League win and new national record of 2.04m.

Olyslagers will headline the team alongside 17-year-old Gout Gout, who is set to make his first senior national team debut. Gout broke Peter Norman’s 200m national record that stood for 56 years in December last year and bettered the time in June of this year.

Australian Athletics’ high performance and general manager, Andrew Faichney, said the size and quality of the team represented the sport becoming more popular amongst Australians.

“We’ve witnessed a real shift, not just in performance, but in national relevance,” he said.

“This team reflects that change. They’re world class athletes with the results to match, but just as importantly, they’re carrying the momentum of a sport that has so much belief behind it.”

The world championships begin on September 13 and finish on September 21.

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