Former world-record holder Tobi Amusan and emerging sprint standout Kanyinsola Ajayi will lead Nigeria’s challenge as the world’s leading track and field performers assemble in Budapest for the first World Athletics Ultimate Championship.
Elite field gathers in Budapest
The three-night competition starts today at the Zsivotzky Gyula Nemzeti Atletikai Kozpont, the stadium that staged the 2023 World Championships. A total of 381 athletes representing 65 federations will take part in the rapid-fire global event.
Selection has been based entirely on performance, with no limits imposed on the number of athletes each nation can enter. The field includes 26 Olympic champions, 26 world champions and 25 winners from the 2026 Diamond League season. They will compete for a combined prize fund of $10 million.
Nigeria’s leading contenders
Nigeria arrives with several athletes possessing genuine medal potential. Amusan headlines the women’s 100m hurdles, where she will face newly crowned world-record holder Masai Russell in a highly anticipated rematch. Amusan will also serve as Nigeria’s anchor in the mixed 4x100m relay.
Ajayi carries the country’s hopes in the men’s 100m after a breakthrough campaign in which he repeatedly broke the 10-second barrier while racing against the leading sprinters on the circuit.
- Udodi Onwuzurike will contest the men’s 200m and also feature in Nigeria’s mixed relay team.
- Ezekiel Nathaniel faces world-record holder Alison dos Santos in a strong men’s 400m hurdles field.
- Ella Onojuvwevwo represents Nigeria in the women’s 400m.
- The mixed 4x100m squad also includes Alaba Akintola, Favour Ashe, Miracle Ezechukwu and Rosemary Nwankwo.
Record payday raises the stakes
The new competition format offers a major financial incentive to every participant. Under World Athletics’ prize-money system, all competitors will earn an award, with payments beginning at $10,000 for eighth place and rising to $150,000 for each individual champion.
World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said the intense format was deliberately designed with television viewers in mind. The aim is to maintain athletics’ visibility in a season without either an outdoor World Championships or an Olympic Games.
With Swedish pole-vault star Armand Duplantis and middle-distance standouts Keely Hodgkinson and Audrey Werro among the event’s headline names, Nigeria’s athletes enter the Budapest meeting chasing major honours and a substantial share of the sport’s biggest prize pool.
