Sh19 million up for grabs in each race as world stars battle in Budapest

Kenya's Cornelius Kemboi will be in action alongside Jacob Krop in the men's 5000m at the World Athletics Ultimate Championships in Budapest. [AFP]

Unstoppable stars are converging in Budapest, Hungary, for the World Athletics Ultimate Championships, which kick off this evening, and none appears willing to surrender their place at the top this season.

Olympic and World Championships medallists, alongside record holders, are renewing rivalries in a show touted as the ultimate contest.

Going by the entries, the National Athletics Centre, which hosted the 2023 World Championships, is set for blistering showdowns.

Kenyan stars will be up against strong opposition in their respective disciplines.

Although several bigwigs are missing from the three-day Ultimate show, their compatriots will be hoping to fill the void.

Kenya's Dorcus Ewoi leads Australia's Jessica Hull during the Women's 1500m at the Xiamen Diamond League meeting. Ewoi is the sole Kenyan in the 1500m at the Ultimate Championships. [AFP]

For instance, in the absence of five-time world champion and 1500m world record holder Faith Kipyegon, who is still recovering from a hamstring injury, Dorcus Ewoi, who followed her across the finish line at last year’s Tokyo World Championships for a Kenyan 1-2 finish, will carry the country’s hopes on her shoulders.

Ewoi, who improved her personal best by a second to 3:54.72, will be taking on big names when she lines up in the women’s 1500m tomorrow night.

Among the greats Ewoi is set to face in Budapest is Australian Jessica Hull, who bagged bronze at the 2025 Tokyo Worlds, where Kenyan stars dominated the podium.

The Aussie had won an Olympic silver medal the previous year in Paris.

But there is a surprise woman in the 1500m mix. Diamond League champion Klaudia Kazimierska of Poland won the series final in Brussels in a new world lead, meeting record and national record.

In Brussels, Kazimierska obliterated a meeting mark set by Kipyegon, who ran 3:54.75 in 2024.

Ewoi will also contest the ultimate crown alongside World Indoor champion Georgia Hunter Bell of Great Britain, who is fresh from Commonwealth 800m and European 1500m gold medals in Glasgow and Birmingham respectively.

Hull won Diamond League races in Rome and Paris in the recently concluded season, but she will have to contend with Ethiopian Birke Haylom, who briefly held the world lead when she clocked 3:55.56 to win the Shanghai Diamond League meet in May.

Haylom’s compatriot Freweyni Hailu, a former world indoor champion, is also chasing glory in Budapest.

Other stars in the women’s 1500m are Nikki Hiltz of the United States, Agathe Guillemot of France and Abbey Caldwell of Australia, among others.

In the men’s 1500m, Under-20 record holder Phanuel Koech will be looking to prove a point on the closing day on Sunday.

Koech, 20, faces an ultimate challenge from the big shots, but has already confirmed his potential for a podium finish. He will be joined by 2019 world champion Timothy Cheruiyot, who has been on the podium this season, including a mile bronze medal at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and a Dream Mile photo finish at the Oslo Diamond League meet.

He won the mile at the Diamond League meeting in Eugene and was runner-up in the Silesia and Zurich meets.

Koech is set to take on the likes of Olympic silver medallist Josh Kerr of Scotland, multiple Olympic and world gold medallist Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway, Olympic champion Cole Hocker of the United States and his countryman Yared Nuguse.

Mercy Oketch, the country’s representative in the women’s 400m, will compete in the semi-final on the opening night today.

Dominican Olympic champion Marileidy Paulino leads the world this year with her Diamond League record of 48.48, while American Aaliyah Butler is the fastest among her Budapest rivals this season. Bahraini Salwa Eid Naser, the 2019 world champion and Olympic silver medallist, is also entered for the women’s 400m.

World and Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi is lining up in the men’s 800m semi-final tomorrow evening.

Wanyonyi’s mission this season is to attack the 1:40.91 world record set by David Rudisha 14 years ago.

He has been in the 1:41 territory several times and might be eager to end the season in style after shattering the 1,000m world record in Monaco in July.

African bronze medallist Cornelius Kemboi and world silver medallist Jacob Krop are lining up in the men’s 5000m final tonight.

RACES TO WATCH THIS EVENING

8:38 pm: Women’s 400m

Mercy Oketch

 

9:36 pm: Men’s 5000m

Jacob Krop

Cornelius Kemboi