World Athletics announces new changes to its competitions

HAVANA, Cuba, Jun 4 (ACN) World Athletics (WA), the governing body of world athletics, announced that starting in 2026, each season will have a competition at the highest level, in which the best athletes of the year, including world and Olympic champions, could participate.

This event will be called the World Athletics Ultimate Championship, and is part of the concepts outlined in the recently announced commercial strategy that will guide the organization's destiny until 2027.

The new event, which will take place every two years -when there are no world championships on the calendar-, will have its first edition between November 11 and 13, 2026, in the city of Budapest, Hungary.

For the occasion, WA has set aside a record prize fund, consisting of 10 million dollars, to be distributed among its participants, although the highest amount will be 150 thousand dollars, destined to the winners.

In the track events, semifinals will be held with the best 16 riders in the world ranking to define the candidates for the title, while in the field events, direct finals will be held with the occupants of the first eight positions in that ranking, WA assured.

Referring to this novel competition, British Sebastian Coe, president of WA, said that the World Athletics Ultimate Championship will be full of action and excitement for the fans and will set a new standard for athletics events.