Five European athletes became Ultimate World Champions on Friday (11) including Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Yaroslava Mahuchikh and Mondo Duplantis.
The Norwegian star, Ingebrigtsen, stunned in the men's 5000m as he ran the final 100m in a blistering 12.6 seconds to clock 12.59.24 and take the title.
He sat in the pack, tucked neatly away in classic Ingebrigtsen style until it was time to strike and surge past the rest of the field before taking the win by nearly a second.
Ingebrigtsen is also down to run again on Sunday in the men’s 1500m where he will take on the last four world champions over the distance, Isaac Nader, Josh Kerr, Jake Wightman, and Timothy Cheruiyot.
Though it was Merlin Hummel who became the first European to be crowned Ultimate Champion when he took the win in the men's hammer with 81.46m.
Wet conditions made it tough for the entire field, with Hummel even taking a heavy tumble in the second round, but still it was all European athletes who took the top six spots.
Newly crowned European champion Bence Halász took second with 80.30m, while Ukraine’s two-time European bronze medallist, Mykhaylo Kokhan, took third with 78.80m. Yann Chaussinand, Volodymyr Myslyvčuk, and five-time world champion Paweł Fajdek completed the top six.
While in the first ever event at the World Ultimate Championships, it was Great Britain who took third in the mixed 4x100m in 40.26.
It was Europe’s 100m champion Romell Glave who ran first, before handing over to Imani Lansiquot, with European 100m silver medallist Jeremiah Azu on the third leg before European U23 200m champion Success Eduan anchored them home.
Ukraine’s Mahuchikh was back to winning ways with a second attempt clearance at 1.99m to take the win and to continue her reign as having won every major title possible.
Angelina Topić cleared 1.91m on her first attempt to take third place alongside Australia’s Eleanor Patterson.
Back on the track, the Netherlands’ Nadine Visser took to the blocks for the 100m hurdles next to an incredibly stacked field that included the new world record holder, the former world record holder, and the 60m hurdles world record holder.
But the Dutchwoman ran a sharp race coming through just on the line to take third ahead of the Bahamas’ Devynne Charlton, said 60m hurdles world record holder, in 12.39.
A strong European contingent also took to the runway in the women’s long jump, including the top four from the Birmingham 2026 European Athletics Championships, Larissa Iapichino, Jazmin Sawyers, Hilary Kpatcha, and Agate de Sousa.
Once again it was Italy’s Iapichino who came out on top, as her first round jump of 6.90m proved to be enough to take the win.
The European champion was borught to floods of tears once her win had been confirmed, soon also revealing that she had lost her grandmother earlier that day.
While Sawyers left it to the last round to produce her best jump of 6.78m which took her from fourth to an incredible second place finish.
Kpatcha just missed out on the top three with her best jump of 6.73m, while de Sousa jumped 6.47m for sixth.
It may not have been a world record for Duplantis in the pole vault, but it was certainly a gripping competition as Emmanouil Karalis pushed the Swede for the win again.
The Greek cleared 6.15m on his third attempt to mark six 6.00m clearances in one month, as well as his fifth time over 6.10m this year.
But it was still Duplantis who came out on top with 6.20m after failing all three attempts at 6.32m having secured the win already, with his new song Gold echoing round the stadium behind him.
