150 days to go to the World Athletics Ultimate Championship (© World Athletics)
There’s 150 days to go until the World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest, when the world’s best athletes will converge on the Hungarian capital to be crowned inaugural champions.
To mark the milestone, we look at the numbers that will define the first-ever hosting of the athletics showpiece…
1
Each final will crown one Ultimate Champion – the best of the best. And while we’re on the No.1, there’s one Ultimate Legend in Usain Bolt, who was unveiled at the official launch on the eve of last year’s World Championships in Tokyo.
2
The newest event on the global sporting calendar will take place every two years, meaning the next one is scheduled for 2028 in the aftermath of the Los Angeles Olympics.
3
In all, there will be three days of competition from 11-13 September and each of those days will involve a horizontal jump, a throwing event and track finals. As well as crowing new champions in the sport, three fans will also battle in Budapest as the World Athletics Ultimate Fan Challenge reaches its climax.
8
The field events on the schedule will boast eight competitors in each line-up. For the men, that’s the high jump, pole vault, long jump, hammer and javelin. For the women, the only field change is the triple jump instead of the hammer throw. Those field events will all be straight finals.
11 September
The date when the event kicks off. It runs through to 13 September.
26
That’s the number of Olympic champions who have already qualified for the event. In addition to that, there are 18 world champions from Tokyo who have booked their flights to Hungary. To that will be added the relevant 25 Diamond League winners in the individual events as well as the remaining top ranked athletes in 2026.
Mondo Duplantis in the pole vault at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games (© Dan Vernon)
28
There are 28 events on the schedule. On the track, individually it’s the 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 5000m and both hurdles, while there’s also the mixed relays for both the 4x100m and 4x400m. In most individual track events, there’s semifinals and the top four from each make it through to the final. The 1500m, 5000m and relay races will be straight finals.
14,000
The capacity of the Zsivotzky Gyula National Athletics Centre in Budapest for the Ultimate Championship. The venue also hosted the World Athletics Championships in 2023.
150,000
In US dollars, that’s the top prize for each Ultimate Champion in the individual events, while the relay team winners share out a pot of $80,000. Back to the individual events, the second-place finisher will pocket $75,000 while the final athlete on the podium will earn $40,000. The prize pot – the richest in the sport – totals a whopping $10million in all.
