Despite several of Jamaica’s top athletes set to compete, retired Jamaican-born Olympic and world champion Donovan Bailey admits the World Athletics Ultimate Championships could lose some of its appeal with several of the sport’s biggest stars, including American Noah Lyles, set to miss the event.

The inaugural three-day invitational meet, which gets underway on Friday in Budapest, will feature the world’s top 16 athletes in individual track events and the top eight competitors in field events. Gold medallists from the 2024 Paris Olympics, 2025 Tokyo World Championships and this year’s Diamond League final winners earned automatic qualification while the remaining entrants were determined by the World Athletics Ranking for the period from last September to the start of this September.

However, reigning Olympic Games 100m champion and 200m world champion Lyles will be absent due to injury.

American star 400m and 400m hurdles star Sydney McLaughlin Levrone, America’s Olympic long jump champion Tara Davis-Woodhall, Kenyan middle-distance star Faith Kipyegon, Kenya’s 800m world champion Lilian Odira, and reigning Olympic and World Champion in the 5000m Faith Kipyegon will also be missing from the championships for different reasons.

Former world record holder Bailey, who won 100m gold for Canada at the 1996 Olympics and the 1995 World Championships, says World Athletics will miss the star power but believes it will still be a great event.

Jamaican-born former Olympic Games 100m champion Donovan Bailey(Photo: AFP)

“I think that anytime that you’re having major championships and this is the ultimate championship [in] it’s first year, the big stars that are missing, it does dampen it a little bit,” he said on CBC Sports. “I think that in any sport, you want to have the greatest people of that time, appealing to the fans, catering to the crowd and breaking world records and winning stuff.”

“But I also think that there are some incredible stars that are established now and there are some really, really talented young athletes that’s going to establish themselves. I’m looking forward to it, I’m sorry for the athletes that are injured or season’s done or whatever but there’s going to be some great competition.”

With the Ultimate Championships being the first of its kind, it’s not yet viewed as a major championship on the level of the Olympics and World Championships.

However, Bailey believes it gives athletes another opportunity to compete for additional prize money as well as securing bragging rights.

Noah Lyles of the United States reacts after finishing third in the men’s 200m final during the Olympic Games in France on August 8, 2024. Lyles is set to miss the Ultimate Championships due to injury. (Photo: Naphtali Junior)

“I think that championships matter, consistency matters, delivering messages matter, being confident, being injury-free matters,” he said. “We look at the Commonwealth Games or PanAm Games, some sort of regional championships — to me, the Ultimate Championships now is like a regional championships. If you win, you win and you’re going to get paid. Does it matter? Yes, it matters for the person that wins.”

“Also, it matters for everyone that competes there because they’re going to have money. If you win, it’s incredible because it’s a title and what this does next year going into, uh, 2027 [with the] World Championships and when you’re on a Diamond League starting line, the Ultimate Championship champion is another title that gets added and maybe you can demand a little bit more cash.”

Each competitor at the Ultimate Championships is guaranteed at least US$2,000 with the winner set to earn US$150,000.

Reigning 100m world and Diamond League champion Seville heads the list of 27 Jamaicans set to compete at the event.

Jamaica’s long-serving technical leader Maurice Wilson and former Olympic and world champion Michael Frater will be Jamaica’s two-man delegation in charge of the relay teams.

Men: Oblique Seville, Ackeem Blake, Christopher Taylor, Navasky Anderson, Orlando Bennett, Romaine Beckford, Bryan Levell, Tyler Mason, Demario Prince.

Women: Tina Clayton, Ackera Nugent, Danielle Williams, Lamara Distin, Nickisha Pryce, Brianna Lyston, Rushell Clayton, Shiann Salmon, Jonielle Smith, Ashanti Moore, Ackelia Smith, Demisha Roswell, Megan Simmonds, Sanique Walker, Jodean Williams, Lavanya Williams.