Under chilly conditions at Budapest’s national stadium on Friday, Armand “Mondo” Duplantis and Jakob Ingebrigtsen headlined the opening night of the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship, each collecting $150,000 for victory.
The season-ending event carries a record purse of $10 million across 28 disciplines, drawing 26 Olympic champions from the 2024 Paris Games, 26 world champions from Tokyo and 25 Diamond League winners from the 2026 season.
Duplantis, the United States-born Swede, cleared 6.20 metres to win the men’s pole vault ahead of Greek rival Emmanouil Karalis. “It was a really fun competition tonight. It was a little bit chilly, but I had a great time,” he said.
Norway’s Ingebrigtsen took the men’s 5,000 metres in 12:59.24, only the second sub-13-minute run of his career, edging US world champion Cole Hocker (13:00.05) with a hard finish down the home straight. The victory continued his return from Achilles surgery, weeks after he claimed a fourth straight European 5,000-metre title in Birmingham.
“Being injured, I was fearing the worst outcome and did not know if I would be able to run at all, especially at this level,” Ingebrigtsen said.
Both short hurdles finals went to world record holders. Masai Russell won the 100-metre hurdles in 12.22s ahead of Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan (12.34s), while US teammate Ja’Kobe Tharp took the 110-metre hurdles in 12.94s, one-hundredth ahead of world champion Cordell Tinch.
The night’s first title went to the United States in the 4×100-metre mixed relay, worth a shared $80,000. The quartet of Ronnie Baker, Anavia Battle, Courtney Lindsey and Kayla White clocked 39.64s, beating world record holders Jamaica (39.72s) and Britain (40.26s).
Germany’s Merlin Hummel produced an upset in the men’s hammer throw, his 81.46 metres beating Hungary’s European champion Bence Halasz (80.30 metres). Olympic and world champion Ethan Katzberg of Canada was eliminated after two opening no-marks.
Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh cleared 1.99 metres to win the women’s high jump over Australia’s Nicola Olyslagers (1.95 metres), on the same track where she won world outdoor gold in 2023. Italy’s Larissa Iapichino took the women’s long jump with a best of 6.90 metres.