• VIDEO | SUMMARY OF THE FIRST DAY OF ULTIMATE CHAMPIONSHIP
• VIDEO | SUMMARY OF THE SECOND DAY OF ULTIMATE CHAMPIONSHIP
Ultimate Championship Budapest 2026 arrives today, Sunday, September 13, at its third and final day with two Spaniards still in competition. Marta García will contest the final of the 5000 metres (at 19:10), while Jaël Bestué will tackle the semifinals of the 200 metres at 18:58 with the aim of earning a place in the main final that will almost close the championship.
Pero hay otro gran aliciente en esta jornada definitiva: Kenny Bednarek y Melissa Jefferson-Wooden son los únicos atletas que pueden abandonar Budapest con dos títulos individuales. Ambos ganaron el sábado los 100 metros —Bednarek con 9.85 y Jefferson-Wooden con 10.62— y este domingo atacarán también el oro en los 200. Si lo consiguen, cada uno acumulará 300.000 dólares, ya que World Athletics paga 150.000 dólares al vencedor de cada prueba individual.
Otros atletas aspiraban inicialmente a un doblete. Rai Benjamin, por ejemplo, compite en 400 y 400 metros vallas, pero ya no puede ganar las dos pruebas tras terminar segundo en la vuelta a la pista, en la que se impuso Collen Kebinatshipi con 43.39. Y Jakob Ingebrigtsen, ganador el viernes de los 5000 metros, ha renunciado finalmente al 1500. El noruego explicó que, tras su operación del tendón de Aquiles y su reciente regreso a la competición, prefiere no afrontar dos carreras tan exigentes con apenas dos días de diferencia.
Marta García, ante el poderío etíope en los 5000 metros
The women’s 5000 metres final will have a distinctly Ethiopian flavor. No fewer than six of the twelve participants are Ethiopian, led by the world leader Likina Amebaw, who this season has run 14:18.41, and by Freweyni Hailu, the recent Diamond League champion in the distance.
Amebaw, Hailu, Aleshign Baweke, Senayet Getachew, Fantaye Belayneh e Hirut Meshesha conforman un equipo de enorme profundidad. Hailu llegará además a la prueba después de haber disputado el sábado los 1500 metros (cuarta con 3:58.44).
Entre quienes tratarán de romper el dominio etíope aparecen la australiana Rose Davies, campeona de los Juegos de la Commonwealth en 5000 y 10.000 metros, su compatriota Jessica Hull, la estadounidense Shelby Houlihan y una Marta García que vuelve a medirse con la élite mundial después de una temporada en la que ha consolidado su posición entre las mejores fondistas europeas. La española, plata continental en Birmingham tras Nadia Battocletti, se coló en el top ten de los 5000 metros del último Mundial (séptima en Tokio 2025 en una carrera en la que Rose Davies finalizó décima).
Jaël Bestúe busca la final de los 200 metros
The other Spanish representative will be Jaël Bestué, who must first get through the semifinals of the 200 metres. The event features an exceptional lineup headed by Melissa Jefferson-Wooden and Gabby Thomas, who will meet for the first time this season. World champion Jefferson-Wooden arrives with 21.69 as her best mark among the competitors, while Thomas appears as the reigning Olympic champion.
Jefferson-Wooden also has the opportunity to complete a spectacular 100-200 double after her Saturday display. In 2025 she won both head-to-heads against Thomas, although the half-lap field presents many more contenders and the first hurdle will be to get through semifinals in which only the top four from each heat advance to the final.
Bestué will be precisely in the semifinal opposite to Jefferson-Wooden and Thomas. It is worth noting that the race features figures such as Amy Hunt, Anavia Battle, Shaunae Miller-Uibo, Rhasidat Adeleke, Torrie Lewis or Success Eduan.
Bednarek quiere los 300.000 dólares
If there is one man to beat in the 200 metres, it is Kenny Bednarek. The American arrives on a high after capturing the 100 metres title and after dominating the half-lap for much of the season.
Bednarek is the 2026 world leader with 19.62, a mark he first achieved in Zurich and later equaled in the Diamond League final in Brussels. In Budapest he will not only try to confirm his status as the year’s number one but also to move closer to his personal best.
The main obstacle, at first glance, will be Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo, but the semifinal lineup will be outstanding. Sinesipho Dambile, Bryan Levell, Alexander Ogando, Andre De Grasse, Makanakaishe Charamba or Courtney Lindsey are also among the contenders for the eight final spots.
A victory would crown Bednarek as Ultimate champion in both the 100 and the 200, and would raise his total prize money to 300.000 dollars.
The 1500 loses Ingebrigtsen, but retains an extraordinary lineup
The withdrawal of Jakob Ingebrigtsen prevents one of the championship’s most anticipated clashes: a new face-off with Josh Kerr. The Norwegian won Friday’s 5000 metres, but has ultimately decided not to double in the 1500. The race, nonetheless, remains a world-final level event. Kerr, world mile record holder and world leader in the 1500 with 3:27.62, begins as one of the major favorites. Standing against him will be, among others, Cole Hocker, Cameron Myers, Phanuel Koech, Yared Nuguse, Jake Wightman, Timothy Cheruiyot, Azeddine Habz and Isaac Nader.
Myers and Koech arrive after occupying the first two places in the Diamond League final, while Hocker will look to redeem his modest seventh place in Brussels, though his legs will be somewhat rested after the effort he carried out on Friday to secure second place in the 5000 metres with 13:00.05 in a race where Jakob Ingebrigtsen crushed all his rivals.
Javelin, high jump and triple jump, finals of the highest level
The program also offers several highly interesting clashes. In the men’s javelin, the season’s standout, Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage, arrives as world leader with 92.62 metres and after winning both the Diamond League and the Commonwealth Games. His main threat could be the German Julian Weber, European champion and also over 90 metres this year. They are joined by champions such as Arshad Nadeem, Keshorn Walcott and Anderson Peters.
In the women’s triple jump, the Diamond League champion Saly Sarr will face the Cubans Leyanis Pérez Hernández and Davisleydi Velazco, in addition to the Olympic champion and world leader Thea LaFond, who this year has reached 15.25 metres.
The men’s high jump is presented as a much more open event, a discipline that has shared a season without a clear dominator. The European champion Gianmarco Tamberi, the world leader JuVaughn Harrison, and the surprising Diamond League winner Mateusz Kolodziejski appear among the candidates for the year’s final major title.
The day also includes the finals of the men’s and women’s 400 metres hurdles (Dos Santos, Warholm and Benjamin for the men; Zapletalová, Jones and Cockrell for the women), the men’s 800 metres final —no Mohamed Attaoui, eliminated yesterday in the semifinals— and the mixed 4×400, where the United States and Jamaica stand as two of the main references.
It will be the final act of three intense days in Budapest. And with two Spaniards still in action, two possible 300,000-dollar doubles, and some of the world’s biggest athletics stars contesting the last titles, the Ultimate Championship 2026 still holds several of its major showpieces for the end, including the retirement from athletics of one of the legends of the 400 metres hurdles, Dalilah Muhammad.
