World Athletics Ultimate Championship: Armand Duplantis stars as sport’s new global event begins
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Duplantis stars as Ultimate Championship begins
Image source: Getty Images
Image caption: Armand Duplantis will perform the official song of the championship live in the stadium on Sunday
By Harry Poole, BBC Sport journalist
Published 44 minutes ago
A bright pink sandpit and a pitch black infield. A brand new trophy and historic prize money. The World Athletics Ultimate Championship is posed as something different in the sport, but some things stay the same – pole vault star Armand Duplantis taking centre stage.
As the inaugural competition’s official song, which two-time Olympic champion Duplantis wrote and recorded, was played to a sell-out crowd of more than 20,000, all eyes fell on the Swedish 26-year-old as, yet again, it was just him against the world record.
Duplantis had already secured the title of inaugural champion in the event he has long dominated, and his $150,000 (£110,000) slice of the record $10m (£7.4m) prize pot on offer. While he was unable to clear 6.32m and set the 16th world record of his remarkable career, an entertaining battle with Greek challenger Emmanouil Karalis had provided the blockbuster finale to the opening night of action in Budapest.
"I approached this event with a combination of a lot of nerves and excitement," said Duplantis. "This was a missing piece for me to become the ultimate champion."
The condensed three-day format of the Ultimate Championship will see the world’s best athletes go head-to-head across an innovative format which governing body World Athletics and its president Lord Coe hope can shape the sport’s future.
Friday’s upbeat curtain-raising session featured eight finals over three hours and brought victories for several global stars including Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Yaroslava Mahuchikh and Masai Russell.
Great Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson, Georgia Hunter Bell, Amy Hunt and Matthew Hudson-Smith will be among those hoping to land the sport’s newest global prize on Saturday.
$10m on line at inaugural Ultimate Championship
Published 16 hours ago
Ultimate Championship – full results
A window into the future?
As win percentages flashed up on screen, and sparklers lit up the dark backdrop as athletes posed with their trophies, athletics attempted to take its first steps in a brand new direction.
On Thursday, the world’s top athletes had arrived for the championship at a red carpet event. On Friday, they emerged to light shows and dramatic music.
The appearance of the arena was immediately striking, with an infield painted black with the intention of directing the audience’s focus to the illuminated live action.
On TV, augmented reality was used to display athlete headshots, win probabilities and projected finishing positions for each event.
For their crowning moment, athletes lifted their trophy from a plinth beside their competition area before heading to a winners’ enclosure in the stands where they joined the likes of Usain Bolt and Noah Lyles.
The first to lift a trophy inside the stadium which hosted the World Championships three years ago was the United States’ mixed 4x100m relay quartet, who shared $80,000 (£59,000) between them after winning in 39.64.
