A number of Jamaica’s top track and field athletes will be among some of the world’s best seeking to make history when the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championships gets underway at the National Athletics Center in Budapest, Hungary.

Jamaica’s mixed 4x100m team, which is the world record holder and also champion from the World Athletics Relays, as well as 10 athletes in four individual events, are scheduled to compete on the first day of the three-day event, which World Athletics is hoping will help to spark a revival in the sport globally.

In addition to the mixed 4x100m, Jamaicans will be involved in the sprint hurdles, both of which will feature semi-finals and finals today. Jamaicans are also set to contest the women’s 400m semi-finals and the women’s high jump final.

In the individual track events, there will be two semi-finals, with the first four in each race qualifying for the final.

In addition to the biggest cash prizes ever offered in the sport — US$150,000 to the winners of each event and US$80,000 to the winning relay teams — World Athletics has included a number of new initiatives with the aim of making the sport more attractive.

Demario Prince (Photo: Garfield Robinson)

The final of the mixed 4x100m relays will open the championships. The Jamaicans broke the global record twice at the World Relays in March
, running 39.62 in the final after being the first team to go under the 40-second barrier with 39.99 in the first round.

Great Britain and Canada, who held the world record at some points in the last 18 months, and the United States are Jamaica’s main rivals.

Four Jamaicans are to contest the 100m hurdles. Ackera Nugent and Megan Simmonds are set to go in the first semi-finals where they will face off against world record holder Masai Russell of the USA. Russell is unbeaten in the event all year.

Another American, Alaysha Johnson, and European Championships silver medallist Nadine Visser of the Netherlands are also to run in the first semis.

Danielle Williams will be hoping lightning will strike in the same place twice as she returns to the track where she won her second World Athletics gold medal. She is set to accompany national champion Demisha Roswell in the second semi-final.

Nickisha Pryce (Photo: Garfield Robinson)

Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan, who lost her world record to Russell earlier this month, is set to race in the second semi-final, as well as Devynne Charlton of The Bahamas, Alia Armstrong of the USA, and Pia Skrzyszowska of Poland.

National champion and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Demario Prince, World Athletic Championships medallist Orlando Bennett, and Tyler Mason are set to contest the 110m hurdles.

Prince and Bennett are to contest the first semis against world record holder Ja’Kobe Tharp and two other talented Americans Trey Cunningham and Jamar Marshall.

Mason faces Americans Jamal Britt, Cordell Tinch, and Bradley Franklin, as well as Japan’s Shunsuke Izumiya.

(From left) Jamaica’s Kadrian Goldson, Tia Clayton, Tina Clayton and Ackeem Blake celebrate after winning the mixed 4x100m relay final in a world record time during the World Athletics Relays at the National Stadium in Gaborone, Botswana, on May 3, 2026. (Photo: AFP)

Diamond League finalist Nickisha Pryce and Stacey-Ann Williams will be hoping to qualify for Saturday’s final of the women’s 400m when they contest the semi-finals.

Pryce has been drawn in the first semis where she will hope to challenge Diamond League champion and the unbeaten Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic, Salwa Eid Naser-Bahrain, and Nigeria’s Ella Onojuvwewo.

Williams, who just missed qualifying for the Diamond League, runs in the second semi-final against American Aaliyah Butler, Norway’s Henriette Jaeger, and Poland’s Natalia Bukowiecka.

Lamara Distin will look to end her season on a high when she goes up against the very best in the women’s high jump this season. The field is led by Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh and Yulia Levchenko as well as Australia’s Nicola Olyslagers.

— Paul A Reid