The inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship kicks off in Budapest this weekend, with the "best of the best" in athletics set to compete over three days from September 11-13. The competition will feature 26 Olympic champions from Paris, 26 world champions from Tokyo last year, and this season's top athletes battling it out to be crowned the best in track and field. Many return to the Hungarian capital after successes at the 2023 World Championships, while others have racked up global titles after breakout performances throughout the year.
The Ultimate Championship is an invite-only competition featuring Olympic gold medallists, World Championship gold medallists, Diamond League winners, and the best performers of 2026 based on the World Rankings qualification system. It will become a biennial feature in World Athletics' calendar, with the global governing body choosing 2026 to launch the event between World Championships and, in Olympic years, to round out a highly competitive season. Jamaican sprint legend Usain Bolt, an ambassador for the event, said it was "great to see track and field going in a different direction." "It's going to be great to see the best of the best," the eight-time Olympic gold medallist said at a news conference on Thursday. "This was one of my greatest things. I've always lived to compete against the best and I would thrive in this moment."
The $10m prize pot will see winners of each event bag a record $150,000—more than double the $70,000 given at last year's World Championships in Tokyo and three times what was awarded by World Athletics to Olympic champions in Paris. Second place takes home $75,000, third place $40,000, all the way to $2,000 for 16th-place finishers. Relay teams will split $80,000 among themselves, followed by $40,000 and $24,000 for second and third place, respectively. The Ultimate Champion also walks away with global "bragging rights," World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said before the event, explaining its significance to the sport.
For one, there are no medals. It's part of World Athletics' "reimagining of awards" that replaces the traditional accolade with a customised trophy for the Ultimate Champions based on individual tokens. All events will be direct semifinals or finals rather than starting off as heats. Athletes competing in the men's and women's 200m will select their preferred semifinal heat and lane based on their seed order. A tie for first place in a vertical jump will be decided by a jump-off rather than be shared, while athletes in throwing events will have four attempts down from the typical six, in the 8:8:6:4 model. The mixed 4×100-metre relay will feature in Budapest after its debut at the World Relays earlier this year, with each quartet competing in national kits.
A number of events have been excluded from the Ultimate Championship, including shot put, triple jump, women's hammer throw, and discus throw, as well as long-distance track events like 3,000-metre steeplechase and 10,000-metre. World Athletics said its decision was based on viewership and priority for faster-paced events. Olympic discus champion Matthew Denny and former world champion and two-time triple jump champion Pedro Pichardo were among the athletes who lamented the decision on social media. Denny, current world number two, explained that the prize money "can change a career and a life" and implored World Athletics to reconsider its stance on public interest driven by its own statistics. "Innovation should not come at the expense of opportunity." These athletes are already the cream of the crop in their field and are most likely to set a world record, based on this year's performance.
Source: www.aljazeera.com