The Ultimate showmen, Gianmarco Tamberi and Josh Kerr lit up the track in Budapest on the final night of the inaugural Ultimate World Championships.
Tamberi stunned at the Birmingham 2026 European Athletics Championships to defend his title for a second time but that wasn’t enough for the Italian who put himself at centre stage on Sunday (13).
There was no athlete that could contend with Tamberi on the night as he soared over height after height with such ease and bravado, making it known in his celebrations that he wanted to go higher and higher.
He had “showtime babe” written across his forearm and that it certainly was as with his family, friends and the crowd all behind him he cleared an incredible 2.37m to set a world lead and become the ultimate champion.
Ukraine’s Oleh Doroshchuk cleared 2.26m for fourth, Poland’s Mateusz Kołodziejski placed sixth with 2.22m, and Czechia’s Jan Štefela took seventh with 2.17m.
In the men’s 1500m the last four world champions took to the start line including Europe’s Isaac Nader, Kerr, and Jake Wightman.
But it was Germany’s Robert Farken who shot to the front of the pack, then as the race unfolded he faded and the race leader kept changing while Kerr steadily moved closer to the front.
With one lap to go it was America’s Yared Nuguse who held the lead, but Kerr eased past with just over 200m to go before storming down the home straight with the crowd roaring behind him to clock 3:29.35.
France’s Azeddine Habz ran 3:30.96 for sixth, while Wightman clocked 3:31.56 for ninth, Farken finished in 11th with 3:32.90 and Nader came 12th in 3:39.54.
After a long season that saw her take gold at the Birmingham 2026 European Athletics Championships, Slovakia’s Emma Zapletalová took second in 52.68, her fourth fastest time this season.
She burst out of the blocks, keeping with her American rivals but as they came off the final bend it was Jasmine Jones who pulled in front and took the win despite a final push from Zapletalová.
Then in the men’s 400m hurdles it was Karsten Warholm who had the chance to take revenge out on his rival Alison dos Santos who recently took the world record from the Norwegian.
As Warholm settled into his blocks, he took one final look back at the Brazilian before stilling and focusing in on the race ahead.
Warholm, dos Santos and Rai Benjamin were together coming off the final bend but Warholm soon started to struggle before clipping the penultimate hurdle and finishing third in 46.78.
In the lane outside of Warholm was Germany’s Emil Agyekum who followed the Norwegian down the home straight to a national record run in 47.10, lowering his PB by 0.35 seconds.
Great Britain ran a season’s best in the mixed 4x400m to take second in 3:09.40 behind the American team.
It was the same team, consisting of Ben Jefferies, Yemi Mary John, Toby Harries, and Charlotte Henrich, that had taken the silver at Birmingham 2026 earlier this summer.
But the stand out star in this run way European U20 400m champion Henrich who gritted her teeth through a blistering final leg in 49.52.
The Dutch team took third with 3:09.57, while Belgium came fourth in 3:10.85, Norway had to settle for fifth in 3:11.31 with a tired Warholm, Italy took seventh in 3:11.56 and Hungary ran 3:16.73 for eighth.
Following his championship record breaking performance in Birmingham, Julian Weber threw 85.89m in the men’s javelin to take third.
Weber had to battle against a stacked field that included the world leader, a world and Olympic champion, a two-time world champion, the reigning Olympic champion, and a 2015 world champion, but he held his composure to secure his top three finish.
Four-time European champion, Amy Hunt, somehow set a season’s best in her 13th 200m race of the season, placing fourth in 22.10 against the current world champion and the reigning Olympic champion.
The men’s 800m was an incredibly quick race with Canada’s Marco Arop shooting round the track and taking the lead before Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati stormed past in the last 50 metres to take the win.
But for the four Europeans, they came down the home straight hardly separated from one another with Italy’s Francesco Pernici placing fifth in a national record of 1:42.67.
Following in fast behind him was Mark English and Yanis Meziane who both set PB’s in 1:42.78 and 1:42.78 respectively, while Belgium’s Eliott Crestan set a season’s best of 1:43.14.
Italy’s Dariya Derkach was the sole European representative in the women’s triple jump and placed sixth with 13.82m.
In the women’s 5000m the Netherlands’ Maureen Koster led the European contingent finishing eighth in 14:38.78, while Spain’s Marta García ran a season’s best of 14:43.94 for 10th place, and Great Britain’s Hannah Nuttal clocked 15:00.04 for 11th.
Of the 28 events at the Ultimate championships, 10 were won by European athletes with multiple top three's featuring just European athletes, proving more success after Birmingham 2026.