Ultimate preview: men's 100m

Semifinals: Saturday 12 Sep, 19:21
Final: Saturday 12 Sep, 20:49

Contenders:
Oblique Seville (JAM) 🌍 💎
Kenny Bednarek (USA)
Kayinsola Ajayi (NGR)
Gift Leotlela (RSA)
Trayvon Bromell (USA)
Emmanuel Eseme (CMR)
Akani Simbine (RSA)
Christian Coleman (USA)
Romell Glave (GBR)
Ronal Longa (COL)
Marcell Jacobs (ITA)
Lachlan Kennedy (AUS)
Letsile Tebogo (BOT)
Ronnie Baker (USA)
Ackeem Blake (JAM)
Jeremiah Azu (GBR)

World lead: 9.79 Noah Lyles (USA) New York, 24 Jul
2026 world list | world rankings

World record: 9.58 Usain Bolt (JAM) Berlin, 16 Aug 2009
world all-time list | world record progression

• Oblique Seville starts as fastest in the field this season on 9.82
• Kayinsola Ajayi will be looking to challenge the world champion again
• Noah Lyles misses out through injury but will help shape the championship in other ways

As the world champion and the Diamond League champion, Oblique Seville will be looking to add the title of inaugural Ultimate Champion to his CV.

But the Jamaican sprint star faces a formidable field in Budapest and while he might no longer have the threat of world leader Noah Lyles, he does face the man who beat him twice on the Diamond League circuit, Kayinsola Ajayi.

Seville starts as the fastest in the field this year as he ran 9.82 in Kingston in June, just 0.05 off the PB he set when winning the world title in Tokyo. He has backed that up with four other performances under 9.90, including 9.83 and 9.88 to win Diamond League races in Silesia and London, respectively.

He closed his Diamond League campaign by taking the series title in Brussels, clocking 9.90 to beat Emmanuel Eseme and Ajayi, and they will both be among his rivals in Budapest.

Ajayi has broken and then twice equalled the Nigerian record this season, running 9.84 in Lexington, Eugene and then London. His win in the promotional event at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene followed his NCAA title win in a slightly wind-assisted 9.72 (2.2m/s) on the same track the month before. He went on to win the Diamond League race in London ahead of Seville but was third at the Commonwealth Games behind Eseme and Lachlan Kennedy – Eseme running a Commonwealth Games and Cameroonian record of 9.83 and Australia’s Kennedy an Oceanian record of 9.85 in the pouring rain. Ronal Longa has also run 9.85, a South American record, this year.

Two athletes are set to contest the 100m as part of a sprint double as two-time Olympic silver medallist Kenny Bednarek and Letsile Tebogo are both also entered for the 200m. The 100m is up first, Olympic 200m champion Tebogo back on the track on which he secured world 100m silver and 200m bronze in 2023. Both of those races in Budapest were won by Lyles but the US sprinter will not be competing this time due to injury.

Lyles will still be in Budapest, however, in his role as an Ultimate Star, serving as Ultimate MC and Creative Adviser for the championship. He will also shape the creative direction of Club Ultimate, the after-party designed exclusively for athletes at the event – but who will be there as the men’s 100m Ultimate Champion remains to be seen.

Jess Whittington for World Athletics

Title key: 🏅 Olympic champion, 🌍 world champion, 💎 Diamond League champion