Kenya’s biggest track stars are in Budapest this week for the first-ever World Athletics Ultimate Championships, a new three-day event billed as bringing together the sport’s leading performers from the Olympic Games, World Championships and the Wanda Diamond League into a single, high-stakes showcase.
The competition, running from Friday to Sunday at Budapest’s National Athletics Centre, the venue that hosted the 2023 World Championships, carries a record prize pool of $10 million, with individual event champions taking home $150,000 each and mixed relay winners sharing $80,000. Organisers have also done away with medals in favour of trophies and personalised bracelets for winners, part of an effort to give the new event its own identity on the athletics calendar.
Kenya has sent a strong contingent built around some of its most decorated middle- and long-distance runners. Reigning Olympic and world 800m champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi headlines the men’s team, alongside Phanuel Kipkosgei Koech and Timothy Cheruiyot in the 1500m, and Jacob Krop and Cornelius Kemboi over 5,000m. Javelin star Julius Yego rounds out the men’s field. On the women’s side, Mercy Adongo Oketch competes in the 400m and Dorcus Ewoi in the 1500m, with Kenyan athletes also part of the mixed 4x400m relay squad chasing a share of the relay prize money.
Unlike traditional championships, several of the marquee events at the Ultimate Championships, including the 1500m, 5000m and the relays, proceed straight to finals, while selected track events begin at the semi-final stage, compressing the action and raising the stakes for athletes with little room to ease into the competition.
For Kenya, a nation whose international standing is built overwhelmingly on middle- and long-distance running, the event offers both a lucrative payday and an early measuring stick for form heading into the following season. With Wanyonyi, Kemboi and Krop already among the favourites in their respective events, Team Kenya will be looking to add another chapter to the country’s storied history on the global athletics stage when action gets under way this weekend.