World Athletics launches new biennial championship

NEW DELHI: World Athletics announced the launch of a new three-day global championship starting in 2026 in Budapest, aimed at ensuring track and field maintains a global audience during the years between world championships.
The World Athletics Ultimate Championship will take place every two years, with the inaugural event scheduled for September 11 to 13, 2026.
Gold medallists will receive $150,000 (138,000 euros) each from an overall prize fund of $10 million, the largest prize pot in the history of the sport.
This event will be held every two years, in the years between the outdoor world championships, which are also biennial. The next outdoor world championships are set to take place in Tokyo in 2025.
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe stated that the timing of the Ultimate Championship will "ensure for the first time that athletics will enjoy a moment of maximum audience reach on an annual basis."
"We want to make sure that we have the famous billion eyeballs that watch our world championships and Olympics Games," Coe said in a conference call with international reporters.
"We have to have every year in that four-year cycle that coalescence of fans on television and secondly it is really important that we extend the season as much as we can at both ends. We need the athletes out there as often as they can."
The new event will showcase up to 16 of the world's top-ranked athletes per discipline, totaling around 400 participants.
For field events, competitors will go straight to the finals, whereas track athletes will need to advance through semi-finals to reach the final round.
"With only the best of the best on show and cutting straight to semi-finals and finals, we will create an immediate pressure to perform for athletes aiming to claim the title of the ultimate champion," Coe said.
"We want it to look different, we want it to feel different, we want it to be showtime, we want it to be focused on attracting new audiences."
World Athletics have chosen to return to Budapest, which hosted the 2023 World Championships in front of near-capacity crowds for the evening sessions. They were "arguably our most successful world championships", Coe said.
While the venue for the 2028 Ultimate Championship has not been decided, the Briton said it was possible Budapest could be chosen again.
"It is possible these could come back to Budapest in '28 but we are a global sport... fundamentally we want to make sure we go to places where we're not just chasing the dollar but we know we will go to organising committees that... have the ability and competence to deliver a world-class championships.
"If you don't, you are badly serving the athletes. There is no point increasing prize money for athletes if they are competing in front of empty stadiums."
(With AFP inputs)