How the World Final Champs qualification works

The primary version of the 2026 World Athletics Final Championship will probably be in Budapest.

World Athletics has introduced the qualification for the inaugural Final Championship (September 11-13, 2026), which is able to deliver collectively world champions, Olympic champions, Wanda Diamond League winners and the 12 months’s greatest performing athletes.

Every of the three classes will include finals and sure occasions can have two semi-finals, the place 4 out of eight athletes in every will make the ultimate. The 1500m, 5000m and relay races will probably be straight last. Some subject occasions can have eight athletes competing.

The focused personnel measurement for the next monitor occasions: 100m – 16, 200m – 16, 400m – 16, 800m – 16, 1500m – 12, 5000m – 12, 100mH /110mH /400mH – 16

The focused personnel measurement for the next subject occasions : Excessive leap, Pole vault, Lengthy leap, Triple leap (ladies solely), Javelin throw, hammer throw (males solely) – 8 

The focused personnel measurement for the relays: 4x100m & 4x400m blended relays – 8 groups

The occasions going down on September 11: Males’s 5000m, 100m hurdles, 110m hurdles, ladies’s excessive leap, males’s pole vault, ladies’s lengthy leap, males’s hammer, blended 4x100m and blended 4x400m

The occasions going down on September 12: Ladies’s 100m, males’s 100m, ladies’s 800m, ladies’s 1500m, ladies’s 400m hurdles, males’s 400m hurdles, ladies’s pole vault, males’s lengthy leap, ladies’s javelin

The occasions going down on September 13: Ladies’s 200m, males’s 200m, ladies’s 400m, males’s 400m, males’s 800m, males’s 1500m, ladies’s 5000m, males’s excessive leap, ladies’s triple leap, males’s javelin

A record-setting prize pot of $10 million – the biggest ever provided in a single monitor and subject occasion – is on supply in Budapest.

The prize cash breakdown for particular person occasions: 1st – $150,000, 2nd – $75,000, third – $40,000, 4th – $25,000, fifth – $16,000, sixth – $14,000, seventh – $12,000, eighth – $10,000, ninth – $9000, tenth – $8000, eleventh – $7000, twelfth – $6000, thirteenth – $5000, 14th – $4000, fifteenth – $3000, sixteenth – $2000

The prize cash breakdown for relays: 1st – $80,000, 2nd – $40,000, third – $24,000, 4th – $20,000, fifth – $16,000, sixth – $14,000, seventh – $10,000, eighth – $8000

The best way particular person athletes can earn invitations contains by:

• Being an Olympic champion from Paris 2024• Being a world champion from the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo• Successful the 2026 Brussels Diamond League Closing• Their place on the world rankings throughout the rating interval of September 2, 2025 to September 1, 2026

As eligible athletes are personally invited to take part, there’s no cap on what number of stars from a rustic can compete in every particular person occasion.

For the blended 4x100m and 4x400m, there will even be computerized invites for the primary six positioned groups on the 2026 World Athletics Relays in Gaborone. The remaining two groups will probably be chosen based mostly on the very best performances achieved throughout the qualification interval of August 22, 2025 to September 1, 2026.