St Lucian sprinter Julien Alfred (© David Balogh)
We pick out some of the key athletes to look out for during the three nights of action at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest.
Julien Alfred
The Saint Lucian’s coach Edrick Floreal said he “broke too many eggs” with regards to Alfred when the World Championships came to Budapest in 2023. He blamed himself for not having her in the right shape for the 2023 season finale and avoided a repeat a year later as she was crowned Olympic champion in the 100m in Paris and took home the silver in the longer sprint. She has shown form at both distances this season, notably winning the 100m at the Continental Tour Gold meeting in Budapest in a season’s best of 10.87 in mid-July. She is also the world’s fastest woman this year for the 200m with 21.51 in Monaco.
Oblique Seville
After winning his first Diamond League title in the 100m in Brussels he declared his aim to dominate next season. He's not doing too shabbily in 2026 currently in terms of on-track domination. His best time of the year was the 9.82 run to win his national championships back in Kingston, Jamaica, in June. That was since eclipsed by Noah Lyles' 9.79 but the opportunity of those two going head-to-head in Budapest was denied with the news that Lyles had been forced to withdraw from competing because of injury. Seville will be the 100m favourite in Budapest having also been victorious in Eugene, Monaco and Silesia this season.
Marileidy Paulino
Such are the Dominican’s track achievements that she even has her own eponymous film, Marileidy, coming out this summer. Hers is a remarkable story of climbing out of childhood poverty to have her talent for athletics discovered on a handball court by the sports minister. At first, she trained barefoot, then in socks before being gifted trainers. The former handball player has gone from strength to strength on the global stage, winning the 400m world title in 2023 and then Olympic gold a year later. She has dominated one lap of the track this season, no one going faster than the 48.48 she set in her Diamond League victory in Paris in June.
Emmanuel Wanyonyi
The 22-year-old insisted he had a new motivation to run following the birth of his first child, daughter Noellah, with fellow athlete Nelly Chepchirchir. He has picked up a world record since over the rarely run 1000m in Monaco back in July but the aimed-for record in the 800m - targeted with his coach Claudio Berardelli - has yet to emerge. He is already an Olympic and world champion and a three-time Diamond League champion over two laps of the track.
Josh Kerr
Kerr and his coach Danny Mackey pride themselves on the Scot being a championship performer but they changed the target this season to focus on breaking the mile world record. Kerr achieved the feat at the London Diamond League but showed that, in preparing for records, he had lost none of his championship prowess in then winning Commonwealth Games gold just a few days later. The Ultimate is the remaining target and his muscle memory should be in good order on his return to Budapest. It was here in 2023 that he beat the world’s best middle-distance runners to be crowned world champion.
Masai Russell
The US hurdler achieved the world record she had been edging towards, clocking a sensational 12.09 during the Diamond League meeting in Zurich. Now Russell has the chance to round off an already impressive season by clinching victory at the Ultimate Championship. She now has four of the six fastest times ever run so the pedigree is clearly there but the Olympic champion knows the calibre of the athletes she is up against in the 100m hurdles.
