Only 500 days to go until the World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest!
World Athletics has published the first 26 athletes to qualify, and officially announced the distribution of finals. Legendary athletes at the competition include Armand Duplantis, Noah Lyles, Gabby Thomas and Jakob Ingebrigtsen.
360 star athletes will compete in 28 events at the National Athletics Center over the three days of the competition from 11 to 13 September 2026. Every moment will be fascinating, from start to finish. The event in Budapest is organised by the National Event Management Agency in cooperation with the World Athletics, with the involvement of the Hungarian Athletics Association.
The World Athletics Ultimate Championship is a revolutionary series of competitions designed to provide the best of the best in track and field with the opportunity to compete. It is held bi-annually, always in a year when there is no World Cup. The field consists of Olympic and world champions, Diamond League finalists and the and the year’s best performing athletes.
In the fight for the title of “champion of champions”, the best in the world will compete in 28 events on the three days of the competition. The programme includes almost all events; each session is stacked with only finals and semi-finals* – no qualifiers, only moments that decide it all.
Schedule of the finals:
11 September 2026 – Friday
- Men’s 5000m
- Women’s 100m hurdles
- Men’s 110m hurdles
- Women’s high jump
- Men’s pole vault
- Women’s long jump
- Men’s hammer
- Mixed 4x100m relay
- Mixed 4x400m relay
12 September 2026 – Saturday
- Women’s 100m
- Men’s 100m
- Women’s 800m
- Women’s 1500m
- Women’s 400m hurdles
- Men’s 400m hurdles
- Women’s pole vault
- Men’s long jump
- Women’s javelin
13 September 2026 – Sunday
- Women’s 200m
- Men’s 200m
- Women’s 400m
- Men’s 400m
- Men’s 800m
- Men’s 1500m
- Women’s 5000m
- Men’s high jump
- Women’s triple jump
- Men’s javelin
The World Athletics Ultimate Championship will be a passion-fuelled athletic festival where every moment counts. The extremely intense competition, consisting only of unmissable moments, will take place in three sessions, each about three hours long.
Olympic champions: qualified
The World Athletics Ultimate Championship will be the pinnacle of the 2026 track and field season, with world champions, Olympic champions, Wanda Diamond League winners and the year’s best performing athletes invited, to crown the ultimate champion.
26 athletes from the reigning Olympic champions have already qualified:
- 100m: Julien Alfred (Saint Lucia), Noah Lyles (USA)
- 200m: Gabby Thomas (USA), Letsile Tebogo (Botswana)
- 400m: Marileidy Paulino (Dominican Republic), Quincy Hall (USA)
- 800m: Keely Hodgkinson (Great Britain), Emmanuel Wanyonyi (Kenya)
- 1500m: Faith Kipyegon (Kenya), Cole Hocker (USA)
- 5000m: Beatrice Chebet (Kenya), Jakob Ingebrigtsen (Norway)
- 100m/110m hurdles: Masai Russell (USA), Grant Holloway (USA)
- 400m hurdles: Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (USA), Rai Benjamin (USA)
- High jump: Yaroslava Mahuchikh (Ukraine), Hamish Kerr (New Zealand)
- Pole vault: Nina Kennedy (Australia), Armand Duplantis (Sweden)
- Long jump: Tara Davis-Woodhall (USA), Miltiadis Tentoglou (Greece)
- Women’s triple jump: Thea LaFond (Dominican Republic)
- Men’s hammer: Ethan Katzberg (Canada)
- Javelin: Haruka Kitaguchi (Japan), Arshad Nadeem (Pakistan)
Other qualified athletes:
- 26 individual world champions from the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 2025
- 25 Diamond League Final winners from the 2026 season
- The best performing athletes of the year
There’s no cap on how many athletes from each country can compete in each event.
In the mixed 4x100m and 4x400m, teams will be able to qualify automatically via the 2026 World Athletics Relays in Botswana.
(*Full timetable and running order yet to be released.)