The very best of the best will converge at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest in September with the aim of being named the inaugural ultimate champion. Already, rivalries have been taking shape in 2026 \u2013 some having been brewing for many years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the lead-up to the global gathering, we delve into some of the key head-to-heads. The final instalment of this four-part series \u2013 marking 100 days to go until the competition \u2013 focuses on the women\u2019s field events.<\/p>\n
High jump<\/p>\n
In a quest to recapture her best form, Yaroslava Mahuchikh returned to her war-torn country of Ukraine to train and she hit the competition jackpot almost immediately with gold at the World Indoor Championships.<\/p>\n
The Olympic champion is getting back to top form \u2013 she cleared 2.03m to open her season in Lviv in January before winning gold in Toru\u0144.<\/p>\n
But there are no shortage of athletes vying to upset her as the champion of champions in Budapest, including the trio of women who shared world indoor silver in Toru\u0144: her compatriot Yuliia Levchenko, Australia\u2019s world champion Nicola Olyslagers and Angelina Topi\u0107 of Serbia, who shared bronze with Mahuchikh at last year\u2019s World Championships.<\/p>\n
Triple jump<\/p>\n
After last season and a thrilling climax to the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25, it\u2019s anyone\u2019s guess who will end this season as the queen of the triple jump.<\/p>\n
Venezuela\u2019s world record-holder Yulimar Rojas has looked impressive early on in 2026 with a best of 14.95m, having endured a lengthy setback with her achilles since 2024. Speaking earlier this year, she said: \u201cIt\u2019s true I\u2019ve been through a difficult chapter recovering from an injury. But my goals never stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n
In her absence, the form athlete has been Leyanis Perez, who edged a captivating final in Tokyo with gold for Cuba as she soared to 14.94m, just five centimetres clear of Olympic champion Thea LaFond. All three have started the year in good form, although it was Perez who again came out on top in Toru\u0144 ahead of Rojas.<\/p>\n
Long jump<\/p>\n
Seven metres is perpetually the goal for the world\u2019s best long jumpers and Portugal\u2019s Agate de Sousa is no exception. Her best of 6.97m \u2013 set this season in Madrid \u2013 has edged her ever closer to that so far elusive mark and she has a world indoor title to her name from Poland in March.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s still some way shy of USA\u2019s Tara Davis-Woodhall, the Olympic and world champion who jumped 7.13m last year and has a PB of 7.18m from 2024.<\/p>\n
Two athletes to already have surpassed De Sousa this season and cleared the seven-metre mark are Davis-Woodall’s compatriots Alyssa Jones (a 7.09m set at the end of May) and Alexis Brown (with a 7.07m back in April).<\/p>\n
There are plenty of other athletes in or around the seven-metre mark already this season: Larissa Iapichino, the silver medallist behind De Sousa at the World Indoors, plus bronze medal-winner Natalia Linares and Malaika Mihambo of Germany are among them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The very best of the best will converge at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest in September…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-474501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}