By David Melly & Paul Hof-Mahoney

Let the grand experiment begin!

The inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championships, first announced in 2024, are finally upon us and the streets of Budapest are full of track and field fans looking forward to three jam-packed days of action.

Small, high-quality fields have been selected using a combination of world rankings and wild card selections, and the straight-final format (with no rabbits!) promises intriguing results. All year, rivalries have been created, reignited, or grown in intensity during a roller-coaster summer season, and for many, if not most, big stars, the WUC will be the final chapter in the 2026 storybook.

There’s too many great races for just one preview, so this is part 1 of 2 that will hit your inbox today detailing all the running, jumping, and throwing on the women’s side.

We’ll get a rematch between Julien Alfred and Melissa Jefferson-Wooden in the 100m, the return of Gabby Thomas in the 200m, and another epic chapter in a banner year for the women’s 800m, where Audrey Werro, Femke Broeders-Bol, and Keely Hodgkinson match back up for the first time since the European Championships.

CITIUS MAG will have boots on the ground in Hungary delivering live coverage, athlete interviews, and analysis in daily post-meet live shows. Make sure you’re subscribed and tuned in to the CITIUS YouTube channel as well as following us on Twitter, Instagram, and Bluesky for updates.

Full Schedule (All Times E.T.):

Friday, September 11th:

• 1:08 p.m. – Mixed 4x100m Relay (Final)
• 1:13 p.m. – Women’s High Jump (Final)
• 1:19 p.m. – Men’s 400m (Semifinal)
• 1:23 p.m. – Men’s Hammer Throw (Final)
• 1:38 p.m. – Women’s 400m (Semifinal)
• 2:04 p.m. – Women’s 100m Hurdles (Semifinal)
• 2:08 p.m. – Men’s Pole Vault (Final)
• 2:21 p.m. – Men’s 110m Hurdles (Semifinal)
• 2:36 p.m. – Men’s 5000m (Final)
• 2:53 p.m. – Women’s Long Jump (Final)
• 2:57 p.m. – Women’s 800m (Semifinal)
• 3:20 p.m. – Women’s 100m Hurdles (Final)
• 3:49 p.m. – Men’s 110m Hurdles (Final)

Saturday, September 12

• 12:08 p.m. – Women’s 400m (Final)
• 12:13 p.m. – Women’s Javelin Throw (Final)
• 12:18 p.m. – Men’s 400m (Final)
• 12:26 p.m. – Men’s 800m (Semifinal)
• 12:43 p.m. – Women’s Pole Vault (Final)
• 12:46 p.m. – Women’s 400m Hurdles (Semifinal)
• 1:04 p.m. – Women’s 100m (Semifinal)
• 1:21 p.m. – Men’s 100m (Semifinal)
• 1:36 p.m. – Women’s 1500m (Final)
• 1:44 p.m. – Men’s Long Jump (Final)
• 1:57 p.m. – Men’s 400m Hurdles (Semifinal)
• 2:18 p.m. – Women’s 800m (Final)
• 2:38 p.m. – Women’s 100m (Final)
• 2:49 p.m. – Men’s 100m (Final)

Sunday, September 13

• 12:08 p.m. – Women’s 400m Hurdles (Final)
• 12:13 p.m. – Men’s Javelin Throw (Final)
• 12:18 p.m. – Men’s 200m (Semifinal)
• 12:36 p.m. – Men’s 400m Hurdles (Final)
• 12:44 p.m. – Women’s 200m (Semifinal)
• 1:04 p.m. – Men’s High Jump (Final)
• 1:10 p.m. – Women’s 5000m (Final)
• 1:34 p.m. – Women’s Triple Jump (Final)
• 1:41 p.m. – Men’s 800m (Final)
• 1:53 p.m. – Mixed 4x400m Relay (Final)
• 2:12 p.m. – Men’s 1500m (Final)
• 2:38 p.m. – Men’s 200m (Final)
• 2:49 p.m. – Women’s 200m (Final)

How To Watch Live:

Friday, September 11: 1–4 p.m. E.T.
Watch on: Peacock, NBCSN

Saturday, September 12: 12–3 p.m. E.T.

Watch on: Peacock, NBCSN

Sunday, September 13: 12–3 p.m. E.T.

Watch on: Peacock, NBC

Here’s our women’s event-by-event preview for all the action going down in Budapest over the weekend.

Women’s Sprints

100m: The best rubber match of the year is here. World champ Melissa Jefferson-Wooden beat Olympic champ Julien Alfred, 10.78 to 10.83, in Silesia last month, only for Alfred to turn around and beat Jefferson-Wooden by thousandths in Zurich, with both running 10.70. MJW is doubling and Alfred is just running the 100m, but either way the 100m final comes before the 200m so both women will be fresh.

Of all the races slated for World Ultimates, this might be the single most anticipated. Jefferson-Wooden and Alfred have developed a fun and extremely well-matched rivalry, and though Jefferson-Wooden swept through all of 2025 and most of 2026 without losing a 100m race, Alfred has the most recent win by the smallest of margins. We know this track is fast, because Sha’Carri Richardson won gold here in 10.65, and it’s not out of the realm of possibility that lowering the stadium record further is what it takes to pull out the ‘W.’

While all eyes will be on the two co-favorites, Richardson, DL champ Tina Clayton, and European champ Amy Hunt should wage an intriguing battle for third. Given that Clayton just beat the other two to win said Diamond League title, the 22-year-old Jamaican is the safest bet of that group, but Richardson did win the U.S. title in 10.77 just six weeks ago and Hunt has shown an ability to sneak into the mix in championship settings.

200m: Here, Jefferson-Wooden trades out one rival for another as the reigning World 200m winner takes on Olympic champ Gabby Thomas. Thomas, who has battled injuries on and off the last year and a half, skipped out on USAs, which Jefferson-Wooden won, so they’ve yet to meet up since last year’s U.S. final.

But Thomas was back in action already this week, winning the 100m at a low-key meet in Italy in 11.02 (plus an 11.01 in the heats), her first race since the London DL back in July. Her season’s best is 21.70; MJW’s is 21.69, so if both women are at 100% it should be a great race.

Fellow Americans Kayla White and Cambrea Sturgis have also run under 22 seconds this season, and White in particular has looked great on the circuit this year. Along with Amy Hunt, back in action in the 200m, and the always-reliable Anavia Battle, the most intriguing name on the list is Shaunae Miller-Uibo. Miller-Uibo is a 21.74 runner at her best but has been on the comeback train for the last few seasons post childbirth and a few injury hiccups. She ran a season’s-best 22.04 back in May but hasn’t raced since July, but her resume speaks for itself if she can get to the start line healthy.

400m: It’d be a shock for anyone but Marileidy Paulino to go down as the victor, given Paulino’s historic season. The Dominican long sprinter has run 48 seconds more times in one year than any other woman in history, and she hasn’t lost a 400m race since taking silver behind Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone at Worlds last year. With McLaughlin-Levrone off enjoying new motherhood and Salwa Eid Naser only just recently returning from a big gap in racing this summer, Paulino is one of the heavier favorites in the whole meet.

Naser and Jamaican Nickisha Pryce have been trending the right way in recent weeks, so they should be able to mix it up with the likes of European champ Henriette Jaeger and U.S. champ Aaliyah Butler. In Brussels, Jaeger took second ahead of Pryce (third) and Butler (fourth), but Jaeger’s hold on the next-best spot is far more tenuous than Paulino’s on the top. Jaeger, notably, has a lifetime best of 49.04 set earlier this season, whereas Pryce, Naser, Butler, and Olympic bronze medalist Natalia Bukowiecka have all broken 49, but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Jaeger finally crack the barrier after running so well all year.

100mH: Lately, it’s simply been Masai Russell’s world, and we’re all living in it. After a decisive win at the Diamond League final where Russell and her two training partners (Devynne Charlton, also a University of Kentucky alum, and Megan Simmonds), took the top three spots, that doesn’t seem likely to change any time soon. The question then turns, of course, to whether Russell can lower her own 12.09 world record, as barring a clipped hurdle or real upset, her only true competition these days is herself.

Two of the last three World champions are on the start list as well, 2022’s Tobi Amusan and 2023’s Danielle Williams. While Williams took gold on this track three years ago, Amusan has been having a better season overall and is probably the best bet to improve upon her fourth-place run in Brussels. In a slower race overall, European champ Nadine Visser could find herself in the mix as well, but if it takes sub-12.3 to crack the top three that may be a tall order.

400mH: For the sixth time this year, Anna Cockrell will go head-to-head with Emma Zapletalova. Zapletalova holds the edge this season 3-2, but it’s been a bit of a tale of two seasons as Cockrell has really hit her stride the last few weeks and handily beaten her Slovakian rival the last two times they’ve met. Their season’s bests are close (52.13 for Cockrell and 52.30 for Zapletalova), so if they are both in top form it should be an intriguing battle, but after winning the first five Diamond League races on offer, Zapletalova needs to prove she didn’t mistime her peak.

Behind them, the fan favorite has to be 36-year-old Dalilah Muhammad, who’s the sixth-fastest woman in the event this year and has a proven track record (no pun intended) of performance in championships. Another veteran, 33-year-old Rushell Clayton, will be holding it down for Jamaica and should also be in the mix for top three. A third American, Jasmine Jones, has intriguing upside with a 52.91 season’s best and 52.03 lifetime best, but she’s had trouble staying healthy over the last few seasons and has raced only once in the last two months.

Women’s Distance

800m: Now this could really be the event of the meet. For the first time since the final at the European Championships, Audrey Werro, Keely Hodgkinson, and Femke Broeders-Bol will all toe the same line and aim to make history together. Normally, the lack of a rabbit would make record-setting an uphill battle, but both Werro and Hodgkinson have shown no fear about setting a hot early pace solo and daring the field to follow.

The main difference between Birmingham and Budapest is that Broeders-Bol now has two 1:54 performances to her name and has gotten within a tenth of a second of Werro in two of their last three races. It’s not a crazy suggestion that Hodgkinson, the Olympic champ, is the third seed here given that she’s raced quite sparingly due to injury concerns and Broeders-Bol has improved so rapidly. If Werro can pull off an undefeated outdoor season (she finished second to Hodgkinson at World Indoors) facing this level of competition, that will be one of the more impressive campaigns a middle-distance runner has ever put together. If one or the other beats Werro in an honest race, it’ll only increase the hype for year two of this incredible three-way rivalry.

1500m: After looking at the 800m field, European champ Georgia Hunter Bell smartly decided to focus on just the 1500m instead—but if the DL final in Brussels is any indication, she won’t easily walk away with the trophy.

There, Oregon alum (via Poland) Klaudia Kazimierska not only beat Hunter Bell, Olympic medalist Jess Hull, World medalist Dorcus Ewoi, and U.S. champ Nikki Hiltz, she did so with a world-leading 3:54.05 run. That might suggest that, conversely, a slower pace would help the others and hurt Kazimierska, but the 25-year-old won that race by moving from eighth place at the bell and closing in 59 seconds.

Hunter Bell and Hiltz are known for their kicks as well, and a slightly slower race might introduce just enough uncertainty to open up the final straightaway to the best tactician. And it’s worth noting that while Kazimierska’s surprise win was truly impressive, it was also her first-ever pro 1500m win outside Poland. She’s officially in the mix, to be sure, but this race is a lot more open than last week’s results might initially suggest. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Ethiopians Freweyni Hailu and Birke Haylom up near the front as well, and Frenchwoman Agathe Guillemot has been a capable contender on the international circuit as well.

5000m: Hailu and Hull are both doubling back to the 5000m the next day, and while they may have tired legs, both women are likely to want a fast race from the gun to dull the kicks of those like Rose Davies and Shelby Houlihan. A true grindfest from the start would favor the Ethiopians, who have six entrants and the six fastest PBs on the list. But a more pedestrian early pace could make things very interesting for the more middle-distance oriented entrants. If the pace lags late, count on Dutchwoman Maureen Koster to work to keep things honest as she tends to play that role in major international races.

The 5000m has been one of the least consistent fields this season, as Hailu is the only racer all year to win more than one Diamond League race. Throw in a straight final, event doublers, and the potential for warm weather, and really anything could happen.

Women’s Field Events

Pole vault: Three weeks ago, this section would’ve had a very different, “it’s anybody’s game”-type of tone. But now that we’re writing this in a world in which 21-year-old Hana Moll has absolutely dismantled the last three Diamond League fields of the season, we need to adjust accordingly.

After her sister Amanda, who won the NCAA Outdoor title in June, called it a season early, Hana picked up the torch and ran with it. Her series in Brussels—where she cleared 4.91m to secure the top seed this weekend and move into a tie with her twin for fourth in U.S. history—was squeaky clean. She didn’t register a miss until she got to the final bar, which she navigated successfully on her third attempt. Moll was already sixth in last year’s World final, and it seems like a near certainty she’ll make an even bigger splash this time around.