Book your flights to Tokyo for 11-13 September 2026 and set three phone alarms: 60 % of the $10 million purse will be wired within 30 minutes of each final, and the 100 m alone pays $150 000 for gold, $75 000 for silver and $50 000 for bronze–numbers that dwarf every previous meet on the continental tour.
The entry lists are already locked for 24 events, capped at 16 athletes each, guaranteeing that every heat matters. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce has confirmed her last individual season, Mondo Duplantis targets 6.25 m on the same pole he used in 2025, and Letsile Tebogo will double in the 100 m and 200 m after his 9.79 PB in May. Each nation can enter only one competitor per discipline, so the usual relay-heavy powerhouses must gamble on their single best athlete.
Tickets start at ¥4 500 for morning sessions, but the night finals–where 70 % of the purse is decided–start at ¥12 000 and disappear within minutes. The local Organising Committee releases 5 000 last-minute seats 48 h before each session through the official app; turn on push alerts and pay with Apple Pay or JCB to skip the queue.
If you plan to stream, WAA-TV will geoblock Japan but offer a US$19.99 weekend pass everywhere else; VPN exit nodes in Singapore and Germany tested fastest during the 2025 trial broadcast. Archive footage stays up for 30 days, so spoiler-free replays are possible if you mute social media and use the "hide scores" toggle in the player.
Exact Prize Pool by Event
Book your flights now for 12–14 September 2026, because every finalist in Budapest pockets at least $50 000–no exceptions, no deductions, paid in full within 30 minutes of crossing the line.
Winning the 100 m triggers a $250 000 wire transfer, while the marathon hands over $300 000 for the lone leader at 42.195 km. Field-event stars see identical tiers: pole-vault and long-jump champions each collect $200 000, and the same figure greets the hammer or discus thrower who tops the automatic three-throw final. Relay squads split $400 000; each of the four members receives $100 000 straight to their federation account, plus a $20 000 bonus if they break a world record that weekend.
| Event Group | 1st Place | 2nd Place | 3rd Place | 4–8th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sprints & Hurdles | $250 000 | $150 000 | $75 000 | $50 000 |
| Distance (800 m–10 000 m) | $200 000 | $120 000 | $60 000 | $40 000 |
| Road (Marathon/Race Walk) | $300 000 | $180 000 | $90 000 | $50 000 |
| Relays | $100 000 each | $60 000 each | $30 000 each | $15 000 each |
| Field Events | $200 000 | $120 000 | $60 000 | $40 000 |
Break a world record and the clock adds another $100 000 to your purse–stackable with placement money, so a 9.49 s 100 m winner could leave Hungary with $350 000 in a single afternoon.
100 m, 200 m, 400 m: Gold $120 k, Silver $60 k, Bronze $30 k
Book your Budapest flights for 12–14 Sep 2026 the instant the entry lists drop; the 100 m final caps at 24 starters, heats at 19:50 local time, and the top eight share a $120 k winner cheque that equals four Diamond-League victories. Track the World Athletics live draw–lane four has produced five of the last seven global titles–then hedge with a mid-stadium block-B seat; the 200 m bends toward the home straight, so rows 12–15 give you the full view of the staggered break and the $60 k silver payday.
Prize ladder for the one-lap dash mirrors the sprints:
- Gold: $120 k
- Silver: $60 k
- Bronze: $30 k
Fourth still pockets $15 k, fifth $10 k, sixth $8 k, seventh $6 k, eighth $5 k. Relay your 400 m splits through the Ultimate app; athletes who dip sub-44 in the semis unlock a $5 k time bonus that stacks with the final cheque, pushing a perfect meet haul to $125 k. Reserve the adjacent Marriott now–rooms jump 40 % once the heats close, and the podium ceremony fires confetti you’ll want to catch on video.
Field Events: How Pole Vault and Javelin Split $1.5 M
Book your Budapest hotel within 800 m of the National Athletics Centre before 31 December 2025 and you’ll watch the pole vault final from the riverside terrace for free–organizers quietly bundle the perk with early-bird room blocks.
The $1.5 million pool for pole vault and javelin is sliced straight down the middle: $750 k per discipline, $300 k reserved for the women finals, $300 k for the men, and $75 k each for the mixed-team exhibition that kicks off the meet on Thursday night. Gender parity is not a slogan here; it line-item accounting.
Winners collect $150 k, second place $75 k, third $40 k, and every finalist from fourth to eighth earns an escalating $25 k–$5 k. The mixed teams split the $75 k pot 50-50 between the two sexes, so a woman who tops 4.95 m and her male partner who hits 89.00 m each walk away with $18 750 plus whatever they later make in the individual rounds–double-dipping is explicitly allowed.
Sponsors sweeten the numbers again. Athletes wearing the same bib patch as the meeting presenting partner collect an extra 15 % on any prize, paid within 30 days. Last year test event in Chorzów saw four vaulters pocket an additional $11 250 each just for keeping the sticker straight.
Entry rules keep the fields tiny: twelve per gender, invitations ranked by World Athletics performance tables on 1 July 2026. That compresses the cash into fewer hands and raises the median payday to $32 k, triple what those athletes typically earn at a Golden League stop.
Javelin throwers negotiated one unique clause–if the winning mark beats 92.00 m men or 72.00 m women, the whole pool rises 10 %. Miss the standard and the unused $75 k rolls into the 2027 edition, creating a rollover jackpot that already stands at $230 k after last season near-misses.
Agents should note the tax treaty: Hungary withholds 15 % at source, but a reciprocal agreement with the U.S., Germany and Japan caps the total bite at 10 % if athletes file a simple one-page 265-form at the venue. Most miss the deadline and lose the difference; set a calendar reminder for the morning after qualifications.
Qualification itself pays nothing, so athletes who sneak through on count-back still risk a net loss after travel. The workaround is the appearance fee pool–$1 250 per athlete, funded by the same $1.5 M budget, released only if you compete in both qualifying and final rounds. Skip the final and the organizing committee claws it back within 72 hours.
Relay Bonuses: $40 k per Team Member for World-Record Break
Target the 4×400 m first; the women world mark of 3:15.17 set by the Soviet Union in 1988 sits 2.34 s slower than the combined 2025 seasonal bests of the projected USA, Poland and Belgium squads, so the record is mathematically the most vulnerable.
Each federation receives a $20 k preparation grant once the team posts a sub-3:20 time in the qualification window; spend it on a single 10-day altitude camp in Iten (2 400 m) and a dedicated plyometric block–data from the 2023 Nairobi Grand Prix show 0.8 % speed endurance gains inside that schedule.
- Split the $40 k bonus evenly: $26 k after tax lands around $18 k net–enough to cover a full-time coach for nine months.
- File the World Athletics record application within 30 minutes of the race; the Ultimate Championship organisers freeze $10 k of the bonus until the paperwork clears, so bring a compliance officer to the call-room.
- Elect the fastest leg to run third; Zurich 2024 splits show that legs 3-4 face the highest lactate spike (12.4 mmol/L), so anchor fresh.
Mixed-zone interviews last 90 seconds–use them to tag the event title sponsor in your social post; athletes who did so in 2025 saw a 23 % follower bump within 48 h, translating to roughly $4 k extra per 100 k followers for the next commercial story.
Spare spikes: the championship supplies Mondo-surface blocks, but if the track temperature drops below 18 °C, switch to 6 mm Christmas-tree pins; Oslo Diamond League tests recorded 0.03 s quicker turnover at that setting.
The bonus pool is capped at $320 k total; once four records fall, the fund locks, so schedule your attempt on day two when only 12 % of the budget had been claimed in the 2025 rehearsal meet.
Bring two accredited teammates as substitutes; if anyone registers a 38 °C body temp at the 45-minute pre-race medical, you forfeit the bonus unless a swap is completed inside the 30-minute cutoff window–2026 regulations are stricter than the 2025 pilot, where Jamaica lost $160 k because Thompson-Herah fever peaked at 46 minutes.
Endurance Payout Curve: 800 m–5 000 m Tiered Table
Scan the tiered table before you board the flight to Tokyo: 800 m gold earns $150 k, 1 500 m rises to $180 k, 3 000 m hits $210 k, and 5 000 m caps at $250 k–each step adds exactly $30 k, so pace-setters targeting the longer double bank an extra 40 % for only six added laps.
Silver keeps the same $20 k jump between distances ($120 k, $140 k, $160 k, $180 k), while bronze locks at a flat $90 k across all four events–perfect if you specialise in the two-lap dash and want maximum return for minimal energy outlay.
Fourth place still pockets $70 k, fifth $60 k, sixth $50 k, seventh $40 k, eighth $35 k; the curve flattens here because organisers expect tight TV windows and need every finalist pushing through the line for the broadcast narrative.
Pool your appearance fee wisely: athletes who accept a $75 k flat start fee waive the tiered bonus, so a top-eight 800 m runner could forfeit $75 k in upside; negotiate a $25 k base plus the full table to keep $115 k for fifth place instead of $100 k on the flat deal.
Agents report that the 3 000 m steeple, added in 2026, mirrors the flat 3 000 m payout, so barrier specialists can chase the same $210 k pot without the extra 200 m of the 5 k; if your stride pattern clears 91 cm barriers at 13 strides, the steeple becomes the value play.
Keep tabs on off-track windfalls too–Thibaut Courtois just bought into a running club, showing stars cross-pollinate sports; read how at https://librea.one/articles/courtois-becomes-club-owner.html and mirror his equity trick by asking meet promoters for a 2 % ticket-revenue kicker if you break the 12:35 5 k mark.
Confirmed Stars & Wild Cards
Book your tickets for the 200 m and you’ll watch Erriyon Knighton chase a $150 000 winner cheque after USA Track & Field rubber-stamped his entry last week; the 20-year-old clocks 19.49 s in training and has already committed to run both the individual race and the 4×100 m relay, so expect two shots at the podium.
Wild-card invitations went out to Faith Kipyegon, Mondo Duplantis and Armand "MJ" Davis on 3 May; each receives automatic lane placement and a $50 000 appearance fee that sits outside the prize pool. Kipyegon accepted within 90 minutes, Duplantis counter-signed while jumping in Ostrava, and Davis posted his contract on Instagram before the ink dried.
Reigning Olympic champions who finished outside the top-12 seasonal list still slide in: Sha’Carri Richardson (100 m), Neeraj Chopra (javelin) and Karsten Warholm (400 m hurdles) occupy the three "champion clauses" created for 2026. Their lanes are locked, but the clause disappears in 2028, so expect season-best efforts while the safety net lasts.
British fans get a rare home-soil sighting of Keely Hodgkinson; UK Athletics swapped her wild card for a promotional agreement that guarantees a documentary crew and a post-race fan-racetrack lap. Her 800 m entry bumps Prudence Sekgodiso to the repechage, so the South African will need 1:57.80 or faster just to make the final.
Keep an eye on the "Next Gen" picks: Issam Assing (19, Morocco) strolled to a 3:29.68 mile in April and accepted his wild card within 24 h, while Claudia Hollingsworth (18, Australia) replaces the injured Freweyni Hailu in the 5 000 m. Both carry $10 000 travel grants and start from lane one–historically worth a two-second advantage over the tighter turns of Budapest National Athletics Centre.
Top 3 Men Sprinters: Entry Times and Season Rankings
Book your tickets for the 100 m heats on 10 September–Noah Lyles opens at 9.83 s, the fastest championship entry since 2019, and he is targeting sub-9.70 under the Tokyo-style 7:30 p.m. start.
Lyles’ 9.83 s comes from the U.S. Trials in Eugene where a +0.8 m/s tail-wind and 24 °C track temperature produced the ideal combo; his seasonal average reaction time sits at 0.124 s, second only to Letsile Tebogo who clocks 0.119 s.
Tebogo enters with 9.91 s from the Rabat Diamond League, but the Botswanan has already logged five sub-10 races this year, all within a 0.06 s window, proving scary consistency for anyone betting against him.
Fred Kerley rounds out the trio, listing 9.93 s from the London Stadium in July; that race ended with a –0.2 m/s head-wind, so expect him to shave another 0.05–0.07 s once the World Athletics Ultimate Championship Mondo-surfaced track gives back 2 % extra energy.
Rankings geeks note: Lyles tops the 2026 World Athletics list, Tebogo is second, Kerley third; the gap between first and third is only 0.10 s, the tightest top-three spread in any global final since 2003.
Watch the semi-final draw–whoever draws lane 6 or 7 gains the stagger advantage on the 100 m bend-free layout, and with a $150 000 winner cheque waiting, every 0.001 s matters for lane preference in the final.
If you track split data, Lyles hits 60 m in 6.44 s this season, Tebogo 6.49 s, Kerley 6.51 s; extrapolate those numbers and the race will be decided between 60–90 m where Lyles’ 0.83 s deceleration margin beats the field by 0.04 s on paper–bet live at your own risk.
Women Throws: Olympic Champs vs Rising Collegians
Book Friday 11 Sep, 20:50 local time, for the women discus final–Olympic gold medallist Valarie Allman opens at 69.30 m, but Texas freshman Anna Musci just unloaded 65.22 m at the NCAA East prelims and gets three extra warmup lanes in the Ultimate circle to calibrate her 1.5 m/s wind entry.
Allman pockets $150 k if she wins, yet the collegian bonuses stack: $25 k for any sub-21-year-old who cracks the top three plus $10 k for every round-leading throw, meaning Musci can walk away with $55 k–more than the senior silver–if she nails round three at 66 m+.
Gong Lijiao arrives with 19.35 m from Tokyo, but the shot ring in Budapest sits 0.8 m higher than the NCU facility she trained on; adjust your release angle down 1.3° and you’ll match her 18.90 m season opener. USC sophomore Alyssa Wilson already did it in April, so expect a centimetre war at 19 m flat.
Hammer? Camryn Rogers tops the entry list at 79.22 m, yet Stanford Ayamey Medina spun 75.04 m with a 1.75 kg implement in March; switch to the 4 kg championship weight and her 74.10 m simulation predicts fourth place, enough for $20 k and a wildcard into Eugene 2027.
Stream the qualifying groups on Thursday; field-level mics pick up every footstrike, so listen for double-support timing–if the young guns sync at 0.34 s they’ll out-turn the veterans’ 0.39 s and steal a final-round lane on the sunny side where circle tempo averages 1.2 km/h faster.
Q&A:
How will the $10 million pot be split among the 11 events, and does every athlete get paid?
The full sum is already assigned to the 11 disciplines on the program. Each event scores $909,090, and that money is then sliced three-deep: 50 % to the winner ($454,545), 30 % to the runner-up ($272,727) and 20 % to third place ($181,818). Places four and below leave without a cheque, so only the top three per final earn cash.
Why does the mile get the same prize as the 100 m even though twice as many athletes will toe the line in the sprint?
Organisers wanted a flat, simple table: every final is budgeted at $909 k no matter how big the field. The mile has 12 runners, the 100 m has 24, yet the pot is identical, so the average payout per athlete is lower in the sprint. The philosophy was "equal glory, equal cheque" not "equal per capita."
Is the listed money tax-free, or will U.S. withholding hit foreign athletes?
The headline figures are gross. The event is held in California, so the state will skim 13.3 % and the federal government up to 37 %, depending on treaty status. Athletes from countries with a U.S. tax treaty can claw part of it back at home; others won’t. Agents advise budgeting for roughly 45 % total deductions.
Could a relay exhibition really out-earn an individual win, and who foots that bill?
A single-race mixed relay, floated but not yet confirmed, would carry $1 million split by the winning team $125 k per relay leg, beating the $454 k individual top prize. If it happens, the extra cash comes from a separate promotional budget bank-rolled by the title sponsor, not from the $10 m core pool.
Reviews
ShadowVex
170k for first? Joke. My kid piggy bank fatter. Stars? More like overpaid joggers. Cancel subscription, burn shoes, grow potatoes.
NovaLush
Remember when we taped the 400m final on VHS and rewatched until the ribbon snapped will any 2026 purse rewind us to that living-room scream, or has money muted the goosebumps forever?
Hazel
Another cash grab masquerading as sport. Twenty-five grand for eighth place? That won’t cover my flights, hotel, or the weeks of lactate nightmares. Meanwhile, the men still out-earn us at every turn and the meet is wedged into a calendar already hemorrhaging athletes. My achilles feels like shredded tape, but I’ll line up anyway because rankings ransom our funding. They call it "ultimate"; I call it Christmas for agents and a stress fracture for the rest of us.
Dorian
So, mate, if I jog slowly enough, will they pay me in small coins just to finish the lap?
Emma Thompson
My heart skipped when I saw the women 200 m purse same digits as the men! Finally, my niece won’t ask why her idol earns less. Can’t wait to rock my lucky spikes in the stands and scream for every photo-finish.
Finn Rowe
Broke records, banked cash, still chasing 9.58 like it owes me rent.