BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — There are some things money can't buy. Going undefeated over an entire season in hurdles is certainly one of them. Getting the last — or make that, the latest — laugh in an ongoing feud among your rivals might be another.
So, in addition to the $150,000 checks they'll get for their wins, Masai Russell and Jakob Ingebrigtsen had plenty to smile about as they snaked their way through the stadium to discuss being crowned the first
winners of track's new Ultimate Championship that kicked off Friday.
“If you find what you want to do in life, the money will always come,” Russell said after capping the season with a win in a meet that featured the best of the best and offered cash, not medals. “When you’re loving what you do, then this is like a cherry on top.”
Russell’s win in the 100-meter hurdles added to the world record she set two weeks ago. It made her 14-for-14 for 2026 in one of the most fickle, unpredictable events in track and field.
Ingebrigtsen won the 5,000 meters in 12 minutes, 59.24 seconds — more than 0.8 seconds ahead of American Cole Hocker. It felt fitting that they came in 1-2, given how the last month has gone. The Norwegian, who won the 5,000 at the Paris Games, got into a spat with Hocker over race tactics last month in Brussels.
They’re on the start list for a rematch Sunday in the 1,500, where Ingebrigtsen also has issues with Josh Kerr. Ingebrigtsen, however, said he needs to see how he feels Saturday before making a decision on whether to race.
“I think it's misunderstood that just because you ask a question that maybe you are critical about how someone is acting,” Ingebrigtsen said. “I think we have to have an open dialogue and communication about things we think are right or wrong.”
Also winning was pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis — for the fifth straight time — though the news there was that he did not set a world record, meaning the 6.31 meters (20 feet, 8 1/2 inches) he cleared in March will stand a little while longer. Duplantis pulled out of a meet last week with back and leg tightness in a move he called precautionary.
He was, as he often is, the last man competing at the track, and hundreds of fans moved across the stadium from the finish line to be near the pole vault pit for their chance to see history.
“There were flashes of hope,” Duplantis said when asked if he thought he had a record jump in him. “For the most part, I was really just focused on competing and doing my best to make sure I came out on top.”
Duplantis' real encore comes Sunday night, when he sings an anthem he wrote for the championships titled “Gold.”
Ukraine’s best high jumper, Olympic gold medalist Yaroslava Mahuchikh, spent most of the chilly, damp night bundled in a parka and sleeping bag watching her opponents struggle with tricky footing on the runway. Her winning jump was 1.99 meters (6 feet, 6 1/4 inches) — fairly pedestrian by her standards.
Still, it was meaningful.
The win came in the same stadium where she broke through three years ago for the world championship, closer to the start of her country's now 4 1/2-year-old war with Russia. In addition to the $150,000, she picked up a pewter-colored, torch-shaped trophy that goes only to winners.
“I think this is a special” win, Mahuchikh said. “But I don't like to compare it with anything else. I just know the trophy will look good, right in the middle of all the Diamond League trophies.”
In the closest race of the night, Cordell Tinch practically had his hand on that trophy but lost the 110-meter hurdles by .01 seconds to American teammate Ja’Kobe Tharp. Tinch guessed he might have pulled up at about the 109-meter mark. Second place still gets $75,000 but no hardware.
“Nothing's really painful in the end,” Tinch said when asked how much it hurt to lose 75 grand by the blink of an eye. “I'm running and jumping over hurdles and getting paid for it. I can't complain about anything that way.”
Friday's other newly crowned champions were German hammer thrower Merlin Hummel and the U.S. mixed 4x100 relay team, anchored by Kayla White.
The star of the evening — or make that, the season — could very well be Russell, who fell behind early, but powered over the last four hurdles for a 0.12-second win — a blowout in this event — over the previous world record holder, Tobi Amusan.
“She worked exceedingly hard and the results speak for itself,” said Lonnie Greene, one of her coaches at University of Kentucky.
The school known as “Hurdles U” has helped produce some of the greats in the game: Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Jasmine Camacho-Quinn Keni Harrison.
And now, Russell.
“My goal was to go out and win and dominate,” Russell said. “It's not for the money, not for the prizes, not for anything else. I'm here to build a legacy. I'm here to make my name stamped in history forever.”
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