Masai Russell and Ja’Kobe Tharp gave the U.S. a sweep of the high hurdles titles on the first night of the debut of the World Athletics Ultimate Championship, the biggest track and field meet of 2026.
Russell, the 2024 Olympic gold medalist in the 100m hurdles, overtook training partner Devynne Charlton of the Bahamas to prevail in 12.22 seconds, two weeks after lowering the world record to 12.09.
Russell is on a 13-meet win streak since placing fourth at the September 2025 World Championships.
"(After 2025 Worlds), I was like, something has to change,” Russell told Lewis Johnson on NBC Sports. “I’ve got so much talent. I work hard. I do all the things. The only person that’s stopping me was me. I’m just blessed to have all those accolades by my name now in such a short amount of time.”
ULTIMATE CHAMPIONSHIP: Results | Broadcast Schedule
Tharp also added an Ultimate title to his world record in the 110m hurdles from earlier this season. He clocked 12.94 on Friday, edging 2025 World champion Cordell Tinch by one hundredth.
Tharp ran a world record 12.75 at the NCAA Championships on June 10, after which he turned professional following his junior season at Auburn.
“Not many hurdlers, let alone athletes in general, can say that they’ve done this much being 20 years old,” Tharp, who accumulated 32 total races in 2026, told Lewis Johnson. “I’m super blessed to have a good coach, a great support system, and hopefully I can keep this thing going. I mean, a lot of top hurdlers peak at 26 to 28, so it’s going to be a fun ride from here.”
The U.S. took the top four spots in Friday’s race even without 2024 Olympic gold medalist Grant Holloway, who hasn’t raced in 2026 and tore a hamstring in March.
The biennial Ultimate Championship gathers 2024 Olympic gold medalists, 2025 World champions and the rest of the highest-ranked athletes with no limits on athletes per country. Event winners receive $150,000, part of an overall prize pool of $10 million — which World Athletics calls the richest in the history of the sport.
The Ultimate Championship continues Saturday, featuring the women’s and men’s 100m and 400m finals, live on Peacock and NBCSN from 12-3 p.m. ET.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen over Cole Hocker in 5000m
Also Friday, Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen won the 5000m by going from fourth to first in the last 200 meters.
Ingebrigtsen, the 2024 Olympic gold medalist, missed much of the last two years due to Achilles problems, including surgery early this year. A month and a half ago, he thought he wouldn’t race at all in 2026, but progressed well enough to return in August.
“Reaching that level of fitness again is maybe what I’m most proud of,” Ingebrigtsen said of running the second-fastest 5000m of his career (12:59.24). “Coming from last two years, it’s 100% no guarantee that I will ever be at this level ever again.”
Ingebrigtsen was followed by Americans in second place (Cole Hocker, in his first 5000m since winning the 2025 World title), third place (Parker Wolfe), fifth place (Nico Young), sixth place (Olympic bronze medalist Grant Fisher) and seventh place (Graham Blanks).
Last week, Ingebrigtsen and the Paris Olympic 1500m gold medalist Hocker exchanged words after the Diamond League Final regarding one of Hocker’s training partners being a pacer in a race won by Australian Cam Myers.
“Tonight was very good, but it has nothing to do with our discussions after the races,” Ingebrigtsen said Friday while not naming Hocker specifically. “Just trying to be grown-up people talking about improving our sport.”
Ingebrigtsen traded verbal barbs in the past with Brit Josh Kerr, the mile world record holder whom he could face in the 1500m on Sunday. Ingebrigtsen, the Tokyo Olympic 1500m gold medalist, said he will see how he feels on Saturday before deciding whether to race the 1500m.
The U.S. won the mixed-gender 4x100m relay with Ronnie Baker, Anavia Battle, Courtney Lindsey and Kayla White. They clocked 39.64 seconds, two hundredths off the world record in the new event set by Jamaica at the World Relays on May 3.
The mixed 4x100m makes its World Championships debut in 2027 and its Olympic debut in 2028 in Los Angeles.
Mondo Duplantis ‘hangs on’ for pole vault win
Mondo Duplantis cleared 6.20 meters to win the pole vault, then took three unsuccessful attempts at 6.32, bidding to break the world record for a 16th time.
Duplantis, born in Louisiana and representing his mom’s native Sweden, added an Ultimate title to his nine consecutive global titles dating to 2021 (Olympics, World Outdoor Championships, World Indoor Championships).
Duplantis’ year has been anything but routine. He moved to Monaco, then got married in June, five days after his win streak of nearly three years and more than 30 meets was snapped. Then last Friday, he withdrew before the Diamond League Final due to tightness and irritation in his leg.
He’s not done yet. Duplantis is slated to perform one of his songs — “Gold,” the Ultimate Championship anthem — on the last day of the meet Sunday.
“It’s been a very long season, a long year for me it feels like,” he said after winning in Budpaest. “I was trying to hang on.”
Ukrainian high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh became the first athlete to achieve a grand slam of titles — Olympic gold medalist, world champion, world record holder and now ultimate champion. Mahuchikh avoided being beaten in four consecutive meets for the first time since 2019, according to track and field results database Tilastopaja.org.
Italian Larissa Iapichino took the long jump for the biggest win of her career, two years after placing fourth at the Olympics. American Tara Davis-Woodhall, the 2024 Olympic gold medalist and 2025 World champion, is sidelined after sustaining a concussion in a car accident two weeks ago.
In the men’s hammer throw, German Merlin Hummel earned the biggest win of his career. Canadian Ethan Katzberg, the reigning Olympic and world champion, fouled both of his attempts.
In Friday semifinals, 2025 World champion Collen Kebinatshipi of Botswana and Americans Rai Benjamin, Chris Bailey and Jacory Patterson were among the qualifiers into Saturday’s eight-man final in the 400m.
Benjamin, the 2024 Olympic 400m hurdles gold medalist, is racing both the 400m and the 400m hurdles this weekend. On Saturday, he races the 400m final at 12:18 p.m. ET, then the 400m hurdles semifinals at 1:57 p.m.
Olympic gold medalist Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic led the qualifiers into Saturday’s eight-woman 400m final. Sydney Levrone, the 2025 World champion, isn’t competing this season after having daughter Savannah in July.
All of the women’s 800m favorites made Saturday’s final, including Brit Keely Hodgkinson (2024 Olympic gold medalist), Swiss Audrey Werro (ran the third-, fourth- and fifth-fastest times in history this season) and Dutchwoman Femke Broeders-Bol (2025 World champion in 400m hurdles who switched to 800m this year).
