Budapest poised to host major world sporting event in 2026

Sebastian Coe, the president of World Athletics, announced in Budapest on Monday that Budapest will host the first World Athletics Ultimate Championship as an inaugural city in September 2026.

Budapest is certainly one of Sebastian Coe’s favourite cities, as the WA (formerly IAAF) president since 2015 was elected president of the World Athletics Federation for the third time last year in the Hungexpo Grand Hall.

For the third time in the last ten months, Lord Sebastian Coe, President of World Athletics, the world governing body of athletics, has visited Budapest. The British legend, the only two-time Olympic 1500 champion in the history of sport, made a historic announcement in the Hungarian capital on Monday.

Budapest will welcome nearly 400 of the world’s top athletes from around 70 countries at the groundbreaking new global championship event, he said.

By launching the ultimate championship, WA aimed to organise a global athletics event that is watched around the world every two years between world championships, he said.

Budapest has been selected to be the inaugural city of the event after it hosted the most successful World Athletics Championships in history last year, Coe said.

World Athletics announces new global championship to conclude the 2026 track and field season.

US$10 million prize pot – the highest in track and field history.

Budapest announced as the inaugural host city.

— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) June 3, 2024

The aim is twofold, in addition to increasing the sport’s popularity: on the one hand, to enable the riders to benefit from the WA’s income and, on the other, to prolong their careers.

The top 16 in the world rankings in the running events and the top 8 in the skill events will be eligible to compete, with semi-finals and finals. The World Athletics Ultimate Championship offering a total prize of 10 million dollars will be held between Sept 11-13, 2026.

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