2026 World Athletics Ultimate Championship

2026 World Athletics Ultimate Championship
Dates	11–13 September 2026
Host city	Budapest, Hungary
Venue	National Athletics Centre (Budapest)
Level	Senior
Type	Outdoor
Events	28

The 2026 World Athletics Ultimate Championship will be held at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest, Hungary from September 11–13, 2026. Organized by World Athletics, it is an inaugural biennial invitational that will feature top athletes in selected disciplines (including defending Olympic and world champions) competing for shares of a US$10 million purse.^[1]

Qualification

The Ultimate Championship is a limited-field invitational, with individual track events limited to 16 entrants, and field events limited to eight entrants. Direct qualification slots are offered to:^[2][3]

• The gold medalist from the 2024 Summer Olympics.
• The gold medalist from the 2025 World Athletics Championships
• The winner of the event at the 2026 Diamond League final.

The remainder of the field in each individual event will be determined by the World Athletics Rankings for the period from 2 September 2025 to 1 September 2026. There is no limit on how many athletes from a single country can be in the field for a single event.^[4][5][6]

For relay events, the 2026 World Athletics Relays served as the main qualifier, with the top six teams in its 4 x 400 metres and mixed 4 x 100 metres events qualifying for the Ultimate Championship. Two more teams will qualify based on their performance during the competition period between 22 August 2025 to 1 September 2026. Only one team can qualify per-country in relays.^[4][5][6]

The following athletes have automatically qualified for the Ultimate Championship based on winning a gold medal at the 2024 Summer Olympics or 2025 world championships, or winning the Diamond League finals:

Men's

Event	2024 Olympic Champion	2025 World Champion	2026 Diamond League final winner
100m	Noah Lyles  United States	Oblique Seville  Jamaica
200m	Letsile Tebogo  Botswana	Noah Lyles  United States
400m	Quincy Hall  United States	Collen Kebinatshipi  Botswana
800m	Emmanuel Wanyonyi  Kenya
1500m	Cole Hocker  United States	Isaac Nader  Portugal
5000m	Jakob Ingebrigtsen  Norway	Cole Hocker  United States
110m hurdles	Grant Holloway  United States	Cordell Tinch  United States
400m hurdles	Rai Benjamin  United States
Pole vault	Armand Duplantis  Sweden
High jump	Hamish Kerr  New Zealand
Long jump	Miltiadis Tentoglou  Greece	Mattia Furlani  Italy
Hammer	Ethan Katzberg  Canada		—N/a
Javelin	Arshad Nadeem  Pakistan	Keshorn Walcott  Trinidad and Tobago

Women's

Event	2024 Olympic Champion	2025 World Champion	2026 Diamond League final winner
100m	Julien Alfred  Saint Lucia	Melissa Jefferson-Wooden  United States
200m	Gabby Thomas  United States	Melissa Jefferson-Wooden  United States
400m	Marileidy Paulino  Dominican Republic	Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone  United States
800m	Keely Hodgkinson  Great Britain	Lilian Odira  Kenya
1500m	Faith Kipyegon  Kenya
5000m	Beatrice Chebet  Kenya
100m hurdles	Masai Russell  United States	Ditaji Kambundji  Switzerland
400m hurdles	Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone  United States	Femke Bol  Netherlands
Pole vault	Nina Kennedy  Australia	Katie Moon  United States
High jump	Yaroslava Mahuchikh  Ukraine	Nicola Olyslagers  Australia
Long jump	Tara Davis-Woodhall  United States
Triple jump	Thea LaFond  Dominica	Leyanis Pérez  Cuba
Javelin	Haruka Kitaguchi  Japan	Juleisy Angulo  Ecuador

Schedule

S

Semi-finals

F

Final

Men Date → 11 Sep 12 Sep 13 Sep Event ↓ 100 m S F 200 m S F 400 m S F 800 m S F 1500 m F 5000 m F 110 m hurdles S F 400 m hurdles S F High jump F Pole vault F Long jump F Hammer throw F Javelin throw F

Women Date → 11 Sep 12 Sep 13 Sep Event ↓ 100 m S F 200 m S F 400 m S F 800 m S F 1500 m F 5000 m F 100 m hurdles S F 400 m hurdles S F High jump F Pole vault F Long jump F Triple jump F Javelin throw F

Mixed Date → 11 Sep 12 Sep 13 Sep Event ↓ 4 × 100 m relay F 4 × 400 m relay F

Detailed event schedule

DAY ONE—FRIDAY, September 11th 7 PM
Track Events
Event	Division Round	Men / Women / Mixed
4 × 100 m relay	FINAL	mixed
400 m hurdles	SEMIFINAL	men
400 m hurdles	SEMIFINAL	women
110 m hurdles	SEMIFINAL	men
5000 m	FINAL	men
800 m	SEMIFINAL	women
100 m hurdles	FINAL	women
110 m hurdles	FINAL	men
4 × 400 m relay	FINAL	mixed
Field Events
Hammer throw	FINAL	men
High Jump	FINAL	women
Pole Vault	FINAL	men
Long Jump	FINAL	women
DAY TWO—SATURDAY, September 12th 6 PM
Track Events
400 m hurdles	FINAL	women
400 m hurdles	FINAL	men
800 m	SEMIFINAL	men
400 m	SEMIFINAL	men
100 m	SEMIFINAL	women
100 m	SEMIFINAL	men
1500 m	FINAL	women
400 m	SEMIFINAL	women
800 m	FINAL	women
100 m	FINAL	women
100 m	FINAL	men
Field Events
Javelin throw	FINAL	women
Pole Vault	FINAL	women
Long Jump	FINAL	men
DAY THREE—SUNDAY, September 13th 6 PM
Track Events
400 m	FINAL	women
200 m	SEMIFINAL	men
800 m	FINAL	women
200 m	SEMIFINAL	women
5000 m	FINAL	women
400 m	FINAL	men
1500 m	FINAL	men
200 m	FINAL	men
200 m	FINAL	women
Field Events
Javelin throw	FINAL	men
High Jump	FINAL	men
Triple Jump	FINAL	women

^[7]

Participating nations

Participating National Olympic Committees
Canada  Ethiopia  Norway  Sweden  Dominican Republic  Japan  Ukraine  Jamaica  Pakistan  South Africa  United States (13)  Uganda  Botswana  Kenya

Medalists

Men's track

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres details
200 metres details
400 metres details
800 metres details
1500 metres details
5000 metres details
110 metres hurdles details
400 metres hurdles details

Men's field

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
High jump details
Pole vault details
Long jump details
Hammer throw details
Javelin throw details

Women's track

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres details
200 metres details
400 metres details
800 metres details
1500 metres details
5000 metres details
100 metres hurdles details
400 metres hurdles details

Women's field

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
High jump details
Pole vault details
Long jump details
Triple jump details
Javelin throw details

Mixed

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
4 × 100 metres relay details
4 × 400 metres relay details

References

1. "World Athletics Ultimate Championship: New event with record prize fund to launch in 2026". BBC Sport. 3 June 2024. Retrieved 3 June 2024.
2. "World Athletics unveils new entry rules". Inside the Games. 10 October 2025. Archived from the original on 10 October 2025. Retrieved 10 June 2026.
3. Dickinson, Marley (30 October 2025). "World Athletics releases qualifying criteria for 2026 Ultimate Championships". Canadian Running Magazine. Retrieved 9 June 2026.
4. "'Road to the Ultimate' launches". worldathletics.org. Retrieved 10 June 2026.
5. "Qualification system and 'road to' tool launched for World Athletics Ultimate Championship". worldathletics.org. Retrieved 10 June 2026.
6. Dickinson, Marley (30 October 2025). "World Athletics releases qualifying criteria for 2026 Ultimate Championships". Canadian Running Magazine. Retrieved 9 June 2026.
7. 2026 World Athletics Ultimate Championship schedule World Athletics. 19 December 2025

External links

• World Athletics Ultimate Championship press releases World Athletics Ultimate Championship
• 2026 World Athletics Ultimate Championship on Instagram
• Budapest to Host 2026 World Athletics Ultimate Championship