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Ireland's Sharlene Mawdsley finished seventh in her 400m semi-final at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest, while Armand Duplantis and Jakob Ingebrigtsen each won $150,000 on the opening day.
Ireland's Sharlene Mawdsley missed out on a place in the women's 400m final at the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest. The Tipperary athlete finished seventh in her semi-final in 51.28 seconds, with only the top four progressing to Saturday's final.
Mawdsley, who was ranked 13th of the 16 invited athletes, earned $4,000 (€3,450) for finishing 14th overall in the 400m. The event features a record $10 million (€8.59 million) prize pot across the weekend, with individual winners pocketing $150,000 (€129,300). Mawdsley is continuing her comeback from a recent hamstring injury, having made a winning return in Italy on Tuesday in 50.58 seconds.
She had been forced to pull out of the European Championships in Birmingham last month due to the injury, which she picked up at the National Championships in Santry in July. Olympic and world champion Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic won the first semi-final in 49.58, with Bahrain's Salwa Eid Naser second in 49.67. Jamaica's Nickisha Pryce and Cuba's Roxana Gomez took the remaining qualification spots in third and fourth.
In the second semi-final, Norway's Henriette Jaeger won in 49.64 to lead the qualifiers. Lieke Klaver of the Netherlands, Aaliyah Butler of the USA and Chile's Martina Weil also advanced to Saturday's final. Recent European medallists Mark English and Rhasidat Adeleke are the other Irish athletes in action in Budapest.
English races for the first time since his 800m gold in Birmingham last month, competing in the men's 800m semi-finals on Saturday at 5.26pm Irish time, with the final at 6.41pm on Sunday. Adeleke lines out in the women's 200m semi-finals on Sunday at 5.44pm, with the final at 7.49pm. Both qualified for the meet by virtue of their world rankings.
On the opening day, Swedish star Armand 'Mondo' Duplantis and Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen shone, each earning $150,000 (€129,300) for victories in the men's pole vault and 5,000m respectively. Duplantis cleared 6.20 metres to beat Greek rival Emmanouil Karalis. Ingebrigtsen continued his comeback from injury with a stunning 5,000m win in 12:59.24, the second time in his career he has gone under 13 minutes.
He produced a devastating sprint down the home straight to beat world champion Cole Hocker of the US, who finished in 13:00.05. It was Ingebrigtsen's first race since Achilles surgery, having won his fourth successive European 5,000m title in Birmingham last month.
"It was a really fun competition tonight. It was a little bit chilly, but I had a great time," said Duplantis. Ingebrigtsen said: "I haven't run too many 5,000m races this season, but it's always good to be back competing. There was a lot of hope and eventually I got my momentum going.
I have gained a lot from the races I've done in the last couple of weeks. Being injured I was fearing the worst outcome and did not know if I would be able to run at all, especially at this level.
" Ingebrigtsen will also race the 1,500m over the weekend. The opening day saw eight finals and lived up to the hype of a season-ending championship bringing together the best athletes, including 26 Olympic champions from the 2024 Paris Games, 26 world champions from Tokyo last year and 25 Diamond League winners from the 2026 season. Two of this season's world record holders, Masai Russell and Ja'Kobe Tharp, won their short hurdles races.
Russell, fresh from running a pace-setting 12.09 in Brussels, reeled in the 100m hurdles field after a sluggish start for victory in 12.22 ahead of Nigeria's Tobi Amusan, in 12.34. Tharp, who set a world record of 12.75 in June, edged world champion Cordell Tinch by one-hundredth of a second for 110m hurdles victory in 12.94. The first title of the night went to the United States in the 4x100m mixed relay, giving them a shared pot of $80,000.
The quartet of Ronnie Baker, Anavia Battle, Courtney Lindsey and Kayla White clocked 39.64sec ahead of world record holders Jamaica (39.72) and Britain (40.26).
"It's really exciting to be the first ever Ultimate champions! " said Baker. Germany's world silver medallist Merlin Hummel was the surprise winner of the men's hammer throw, with the infield painted black. His best of 81.46m was enough to beat Hungary's European champion Bence Halasz (80.30).
Olympic, world and Commonwealth champion Ethan Katzberg of Canada missed out on a podium after two opening no-marks that saw him promptly eliminated. The women's high jump was quickly narrowed down to a showdown between Ukraine's world record holder Yaroslava Mahuchikh and Australian Nicola Olyslagers. Olympic champion Mahuchikh cleared 1.99m for the win, while world champion Olyslagers could only manage 1.95m in the chilly conditions. The World Athletics Ultimate Championship is being held at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest.
IrishTimes 
The42_ie:Mawdsley misses out on 400m final, Duplantis and Ingebrigtsen shine at Ultimate ChampionshipThis story was compiled and edited by the HeadTopics newsroom and HT AI from the reports above.
Sharlene Mawdsley World Athletics Ultimate Championship 400M Budapest Semi-Final Armand Duplantis Jakob Ingebrigtsen Budapest 2026
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