If there was any doubt the new sports season is in full swing, this week removed all uncertainty. The UEFA Champions League kicked off on Tuesday; the National Football League (NFL) season kicked off on Wednesday, with the first-ever NFL game in Australia played last night; and track and field fans are not left out in the cold as the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship gets underway today.

JustBet is offering Barcelona as preseason favourites to win the Champions League, with back-to-back winners Paris Saint-Germain just a smidgen behind, while the bookmaker has the Los Angeles Rams as heavy favourites to win the Super Bowl next February. However, while both seasons have just started and have a long way to go, the new, high-stakes, global track and field extravaganza will enjoy a three-day weekend and promise excitement from start to finish.

In June 2024, World Athletics announced that it would hold a new biennial event known as the World Athletics Ultimate Championship, following the Diamond League final. The event will take place in even-numbered years when the World Athletics Championships are not being held and will feature a limited invitational field of top athletes, about eight to 16 elite athletes per discipline, to include reigning Olympic champions, world champions, Diamond League winners, and top-ranked competitors.

The National Athletics Centre in Budapest, Hungary, will play host to the ultimate season-ending showdown for the sport’s biggest stars, from today to Sunday, and JustBet will offer odds on select events during the championships. It promises to be a compact, fast-paced, three-day competition, about three hours per day, featuring 28 events, with no rounds or heats, just semi-finals and direct finals. And World Athletics has announced a whopping US$10 million total prize payout, with individual gold medallists winning US$150,000 each.

That said, the world’s top sprinters, hurdlers, distance runners, jumpers and throwers will line up for 26 individual events — 13 for men and 13 for women — along with two mixed relays (4x100m and 4x400m), from September 11-13, for the honour to be crowned “Ultimate Champion” in their respective disciplines, and come away with cash awards. A total of 27 Jamaicans are scheduled to compete across the three days, headed by the reigning 100m World champion and newly crowned 100m Diamond League king, Oblique Seville, and the newly crowned 100m Diamond League queen Tina Clayton.

Along with Seville, other male Jamaican participants include Ackeem Blake (100m), Bryan Levell and Christopher Taylor (200m), Navasky Anderson (800m), Demario Prince, Tyler Mason, and Orlando Bennett (110m hurdles), Romaine Beckford (high jump), and Tajay Gayle (long jump). The female contingent, along with Clayton, include Jonielle Smith, Lavanya Williams, Brianna Lyston, and Jodean Williams (100m), Ashanti Moore and Lavanya Williams (200m), Nickisha Pryce and Stacey Ann Williams (400m), Demisha Roswell, Megan Simmonds, Danielle Williams and Ackera Nugent (100m hurdles), Rushell Clayton, Sanique Walker and Shiann Salmon (400m hurdles), Lamara Distin (high jump), and Ackelia Smith (triple jump). The Jamaican delegation is also slated to compete in the 4x100m and 4×400 mixed relays.

While all events promise excitement, due to the invited crème de la crème in each discipline, the 100m showdown is usually the marquee event in any athletic tournament. And while the reigning men’s 100m Olympic champion, Noah Lyles, has been ruled out due to injury, there is more than enough talent in the line-ups, for both men and women, to make both the semi-finals and finals on Saturday night, must watch events.

Lyles has the world lead in the event this year (9.79s), and with him out, the fastest time in the line-up belongs to Seville (9.82s), which he ran in Kingston, Jamaica, in June, 0.05s off the personal best he set when winning the world title in Tokyo. Seville will be looking to add this title alongside the World Champion and Diamond League crowns to his resume, but he faces a competitor who got the better of him twice on the Diamond League circuit, Kayinsola Ajayi, who finished third in the Diamond League final.

Seville has had four other performances under 9.90s this season, including 9.83s and 9.88s, to win Diamond League races in Silesia and London, respectively, and clocked 9.90s in the final in Brussels, ahead of Emmanuel Eseme and Ajayi, who will both be among his rivals tomorrow. Ajayi has broken and then twice equalled the Nigerian record this season, running 9.84s in Lexington, Eugene, and then London. He went on to win the Diamond League race in London, ahead of Seville, but was third at the Commonwealth Games behind Eseme and Lachlan Kennedy, with Eseme running a Commonwealth Games and Cameroonian record of 9.83s and Australia’s Kennedy an Oceanian record of 9.85s, in pouring rain, and both add to the flavour of the line-up. Two-time Olympic silver medallist Kenny Bednarek and 2023 World silver medallist Letsile Tebogo as well as Christian Coleman, Akani Simbine, and Ackeem Blake are included in a first-class ensemble.

The world lead on the women’s side (10.70s) belong jointly to Olympic champion Julien Alfred and World champion Melissa Jefferson-Wooden after their thrilling clash in Zurich last month, while Tina Clayton arrives fresh from winning her first Diamond League title in Brussels (10.93s), and Sha’Carri Richardson returns to the stadium where she won the world title in 2023, having beaten the field at the US trials this year, clocking 10.77s.

Jefferson-Wooden returns to Budapest as the World champion, having produced a stunning 10.61s championship record to win in Tokyo last year, where she finished ahead of Clayton and Alfred. She has remained consistent throughout 2026, winning Diamond League races in Stockholm and Eugene before beating Alfred in Silesia last month. Alfred turned the tables in Zurich, producing a Saint Lucian record of 10.70s and edged Jefferson-Wooden by the smallest of margins, with both women credited with the world-leading time. Clayton, who took World silver behind Jefferson-Wooden in Tokyo, is now heavy in the mix and had a season’s best of 10.85s earlier in the year. The US champion, Richardson, is back on form with a season’s best of 10.77s, while European champion Amy Hunt finished second to Clayton at the Diamond League final. Beyond the champions, the field is deep, as Canada’s Sade McCreath has improved her national record to 10.86s, while Jonielle Smith, Lavanya Williams, Cambrea Sturgis, Zoe Hobbs, and Brianna Lyston have all broken 10.95s this year. Saturday night is surely the opportunity for someone to declare themselves the “ultimate champion”.

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