Nicola Olyslagers and Yaroslava Mahuchikh will be among the Budapest challengers
The very best of the best will converge at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest in September with the aim of being named the inaugural ultimate champion. Already, rivalries have been taking shape in 2026 – some having been brewing for many years.
In the lead-up to the global gathering, we delve into some of the key head-to-heads. The final instalment of this four-part series – marking 100 days to go until the competition – focuses on the women’s field events.
High jump
In a quest to recapture her best form, Yaroslava Mahuchikh returned to her war-torn country of Ukraine to train and she hit the competition jackpot almost immediately with gold at the World Indoor Championships.
The Olympic champion is getting back to top form – she cleared 2.03m to open her season in Lviv in January before winning gold in Toruń.
But there are no shortage of athletes vying to upset her as the champion of champions in Budapest, including the trio of women who shared world indoor silver in Toruń: her compatriot Yuliia Levchenko, Australia’s world champion Nicola Olyslagers and Angelina Topić of Serbia, who shared bronze with Mahuchikh at last year’s World Championships.
Triple jump
After last season and a thrilling climax to the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25, it’s anyone’s guess who will end this season as the queen of the triple jump.
Venezuela’s world record-holder Yulimar Rojas has looked impressive early on in 2026 with a best of 14.95m, having endured a lengthy setback with her achilles since 2024. Speaking earlier this year, she said: “It’s true I’ve been through a difficult chapter recovering from an injury. But my goals never stopped.”
In her absence, the form athlete has been Leyanis Perez, who edged a captivating final in Tokyo with gold for Cuba as she soared to 14.94m, just five centimetres clear of Olympic champion Thea LaFond. All three have started the year in good form, although it was Perez who again came out on top in Toruń ahead of Rojas.
Long jump
Seven metres is perpetually the goal for the world’s best long jumpers and Portugal’s Agate de Sousa is no exception. Her best of 6.97m – set this season in Madrid – has edged her ever closer to that so far elusive mark and she has a world indoor title to her name from Poland in March.
But it’s still some way shy of USA’s Tara Davis-Woodhall, the Olympic and world champion who jumped 7.13m last year and has a PB of 7.18m from 2024.
Two athletes to already have surpassed De Sousa this season and cleared the seven-metre mark are Davis-Woodall's compatriots Alyssa Jones (a 7.09m set at the end of May) and Alexis Brown (with a 7.07m back in April).
There are plenty of other athletes in or around the seven-metre mark already this season: Larissa Iapichino, the silver medallist behind De Sousa at the World Indoors, plus bronze medal-winner Natalia Linares and Malaika Mihambo of Germany are among them.
