Coe says new Ultimate Championship will be athletics ‘gamechanger’

BUDAPEST: World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said on Friday the new Ultimate Championship team event, officially unveiled by the sport´s governing body, would be a “gamechanger” for track and field.

The inaugural event will be held in Budapest on September 11-13, 2026, and will be staged every two years to fulfil World Athletics´ ambition of holding a global championship every year.

The federation said the event would provide “a spectacular conclusion to the summer athletics season, in the years where there is no World Athletics Championships”.

The event boasts a “record-setting” prize pot of $10 million (9.6 million euros). World Athletics said it was “the largest ever offered in track and field”, with champions set to receive $150,000.

Each session will last three hours and athletes will represent both themselves and their national teams, wearing national kit.

Coe, who gave a press conference at the stadium in the Hungarian capital where the 2023 World Championships were held, said: “This new global event will be a gamechanger for our sport and for our athletes.

“We want to bring our fans athletics like they have never seen it before -- with the best of the best athletes in our sport competing head-to-head in a passion-fuelled, high octane, festival of sport, with sound, light and innovation.”

Coe said he was aiming to create a “world-beating” event that could “draw in viewers who might never have watched athletics”.

“This is the holy grail of all sports -- how do you reach out to all audiences in a way that is familiar to them?” he told AFP in an interview.

The announcement comes after former Olympic sprint champion Michael Johnson unveiled details of his four-meet Grand Slam Track series, which makes its debut next year with three-day events in Kingston, Jamaica, Miami, Philadelphia and Los Angeles.

Johnson´s series is widely seen as a challenge to the established Diamond League circuit of meets as the sport of athletics fights for the limelight outside of the Olympics and world championships.

The Ultimate Championship, which unlike Grand Slam Track will also feature field events, will take place after the Diamond League finals.

In another difference between Grand Slam Track and the Ultimate Championship, World Athletics already have a broadcast partner for their event -- Tata Communications and Host Broadcast Services (HBS).

Coe said the aim was to have a “free-to-air” event that would be seen by the biggest audience possible, adding: “It´s all up there for discussion.”

Grand Slam Track, meanwhile, is yet to announce a broadcasting deal, with Johnson insisting he is still trying to find the right partner.

In the Ultimate Championship in Budapest, almost 400 athletes will battle to become “ultimate champions”, with clashes including the 100m, 800m, pole vault, high jump and a new 4x100m mixed relay.

World Athletics CEO Jon Ridgeon said the new event coupled with the launch of Grand Slam Track showed that “athletics is in a positive growth phase at the moment”.

World pole vault record holder and two-time Olympic champion Mondo Duplantis said the event would be “insane”.

“The new Ultimate Championship in 2026 will be the ultimate high in a year when we do not have a World Championships or Olympic Games,” the Swede said.

“Nothing beats competing in front of a live crowd. Anyone that knows me or has watched me compete knows this is where I thrive.

“Even with fewer events there will still be 26 individual events taking place over just three nights -- the pace will be insane.”