ATHLETICS – Bahrain’s former world champions Salwa Eid Naser and Kemi Adekoya will be flying the kingdom’s flag in the inaugural edition of the World Athletics Ultimate Championship 2026, set to take place this Friday to Sunday in Budapest, Hungary.
The prestigious meeting will bring together 25 champions from the Paris 2024 Olympics, 26 title holders from last year’s World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, 25 Diamond League winners from this season, and a host of the year’s best-performing track and field stars across 28 disciplines.
They will be vying for a share of the record prize pot of US$10million on offer, with individual champions pocketing $150,000 apiece.
Naser and Adekoya were both on the official entry list published by World Athletics.
Naser will be competing in the women’s 400 metres while Adekoya will be running in the women’s 400m hurdles.
The World Athletics Ultimate Championship is an all-new meeting created by the sport’s worldwide governing body to meet the high demand for top-class competition.
It is separate from the biennial worlds, which remains World Athletics’ flagship event.
Both Naser and Adekoya are part of high-quality fields in their respective events, each of which will begin with a semi-final round followed by their finals.
Naser will be battling amongst a 16-runner group, headlined by reigning Olympic champion, ex-world champion, and this year’s Diamond Trophy winner Marileidy Paulino, who is also the world’s top-ranked women’s athlete in the distance.
The rest of the competitors are Henriette Jaeger of Norway, Natalia Bukowiecka of Poland, Nickisha Pryce and Stacey Ann Williams from Jamaica, Lurdes Gloria Manuel from the Czech Republic, Roxana Gomez from Cuba, Lieke Klaver from the Netherlands, Yemi Mary John from Britain, Ella Onojuvwevwo from Nigeria, Sharlene Mawdsley from Ireland, Martina Weil from Chile, Mercy Adongo Oketch from Kenya, and Aaliyah Butler and Alexis Holmes from the US.
Two women’s 400m semi-finals featuring eight runners apiece are scheduled for Friday starting at 8.38pm.
The top four from each will make it through to the title-decider, set for Saturday at 7.08pm. Both times are Bahrain.
Twenty-eight-year-old Naser heads into Budapest with a season’s best of 49.27 seconds, which she clocked last month in Italy.
Her personal best is 48.14s, which is also an Asian and Bahraini record set in 2019.
Meanwhile, Adekoya will be up against 16 others in the women’s 400m hurdles, led by world number one Emma Zapletalova from Slovakia and recently crowned Diamond League champion Anna Cockrell from the US.
The other participants are Rushell Clayton, Sanique Walker, Shiann Salmon from Jamaica, Gianna Woodruff from Panama, Amalie Iuel fron Norway, Fatoumata Binta Diallo from Portugal, Paulien Couckuyt from Belgium, Ayomide Folorunso from Italy, Ashley Miller from Zimbabwe, Lina Nielsen from Britain, Sara Mato from Hungary, and Jasmine Jones, Dalilah Muhammad, and Shamier Little from the US.
The women’s 400m semi-finals are scheduled for 7.46pm on Saturday, with the best four from the two races advancing to the final on Sunday at 7.08pm. Both times are also Bahrain.
Adekoya’s season’s best is 53.67s from June in Qatar. The 33-year-old’s personal best is 53.09s, which is also an Asian and Bahraini record that she posted in 2023.
Following this weekend’s World Athletics Ultimate Championships, Naser and Adekoya are also set to be part of the kingdom’s athletics national team that will be going for gold at the 20th Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan.
patrick@gdnmedia.bh
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