Rizky Amelia
The global track and field elite are converging in Budapest as the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship gets under way, launching a high-stakes, three-day competition designed to showcase the premier performers in the sport.
Running from September 11 to 13, the invitation-only event brings together 26 reigning Olympic champions from Paris, 26 world champions crowned in Tokyo last year, Diamond League titleholders, and the top-ranked competitors of the 2026 campaign. Many athletes are returning to familiar territory at the Hungarian venue, having previously contested the 2023 World Athletics Championships in the capital.
World Athletics conceived the Ultimate Championship as a biennial fixture to anchor the international calendar, positioning it strategically between standard World Championships and utilizing it during Olympic years to conclude grueling competitive campaigns on a high note.
At the heart of the new competition is a historic financial commitment, highlighted by an unprecedented $10 million overall prize pot. Individual event winners will each secure a record $150,000 payout, representing more than double the $70,000 prize awarded at last year’s Tokyo World Championships and triple the Olympic gold medal incentives previously introduced by the governing body in Paris.
The financial rewards extend across the field, with runners-up earning $75,000 and third-place finishers taking home $40,000, while tiered payouts continue down to $2,000 for 16th-place competitors. In relay disciplines, victorious teams will split $80,000, with second and third places receiving $40,000 and $24,000 respectively. World Athletics President Sebastian Coe highlighted that beyond the substantial monetary gains, winners earn ultimate global bragging rights.
Sprinting icon Usain Bolt, serving as an ambassador for the competition, expressed strong support for the gathering of top-tier talent. The eight-time Olympic champion and world record holder noted that it was refreshing to see the sport pursue innovative directions, remarking that competing directly against the absolute best was the environment in which he had always thrived during his career.
In a departure from traditional international championships, the competition will not award standard medals. Instead, World Athletics has introduced a reimagined awards concept that presents victorious competitors with customized trophies incorporating personalized tokens.
The track format has also been restructured to maximize intensity, bypassing preliminary qualifying heats entirely in favor of immediate semifinal rounds and direct finals. In the men's and women's 200-meter events, top-seeded sprinters have been granted the unique strategic advantage of selecting their preferred semifinal heats and lane assignments.
Field events feature notable adjustments, such as mandatory jump-offs to settle first-place ties in vertical jumping disciplines rather than sharing titles. Throwing events have been condensed from the standard six attempts down to four, operating under an 8:8:6:4 progression model, while the newly introduced mixed 4x100-meter relay makes its championship appearance following its debut at the World Relays earlier this year.
Despite the enthusiasm surrounding the launch, the event format has faced notable criticism due to the omission of several core track and field disciplines. Events left off the program include the shot put, triple jump, discus throw, women’s hammer throw, 3,000-meter steeplechase, and the 10,000-meter run, which the governing body excluded in an effort to maintain rapid pacing and elevate television viewing figures.
The exclusion sparked frustration across social media from premier athletes in the dropped categories, including Olympic discus champion Matthew Denny and former world and two-time triple jump champion Pedro Pichardo. Denny, the current world number two in discus, cautioned that life-changing prize money was being withheld from dedicated athletes and argued that commercial innovation should never develop at the expense of athletic opportunity.
Even with the streamlined schedule, anticipation remains exceptionally high for record-breaking performances from several in-form headliners. Swedish pole vault superstar Armand "Mondo" Duplantis enters Budapest as a leading candidate to reset the world record, having already raised the global benchmark 15 times, most recently in March.
The hurdles events also carry massive record potential following stellar recent marks. Brazil's Alison dos Santos arrives having shattered the men's 400-meter hurdles record in Zurich, eclipsing the previous mark established at the Tokyo Olympics, while American hurdler Masai Russell aims to extend a dominant 12-race winning streak after clocking 12.09 seconds in the women's 100-meter hurdles.
Middle-distance races offer further prospects for history, with world leader Emanuel Wanyonyi repeatedly threatening David Rudisha’s long-standing men's 800-meter record from the 2012 London Olympics. In the women's 800 meters, Switzerland's Audrey Werro enters after producing a blistering 1:53.70 mark in Zurich, moving to third on the all-time list and within striking distance of the historic 1983 record.
As the inaugural championship unfolds across the weekend, Budapest serves as the testing ground for World Athletics' latest evolution, blending elite talent, transformed competition structures, and record purses into a compact championship spectacle.
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