Dominant Kerr wins $150k with GB's first Ultimate title

Josh Kerr captured Britain’s first Ultimate Championship title, prevailing in the 1500m final in Budapest with a time of 3 minutes 29.35 seconds and earning $150,000. The victory marked the inaugural edition of the athletics competition, which concluded in the Hungarian capital. Kerr had already highlighted a standout season by smashing the 27‑year‑old mile world record at the London Diamond League, claiming Commonwealth Games gold in Glasgow earlier this summer and reclaiming the world indoor 3000m title. In Budapest he overtook American Yared Nuguse on the back straight and, once he moved to the front, held off any challenge to seal the win. “I americium a large title feline and I volition ever accidental that,” Kerr, 28, told BBC Sport. He added, “From 7 weeks agone successful London, I went home, I chopped wood and carried h2o and I was acceptable to spell again. “Sometimes you person to travel retired of it to excavation deeper and spell further successful life. Two weeks earlier [a race] I effort to bash thing to get maine retired my regular and past I propulsion myself for the past fewer weeks. If I didn't decorativeness with a win, past that was connected me.” Although Kerr was the 2023 world champion, he did not receive automatic entry to the Ultimate Championship, which is reserved for reigning world champions, Diamond League winners and athletes selected via world ranking. World Athletics instead granted him an exceptional invitation, extending the same courtesy to Jakob Ingebrigtsen. The anticipated showdown between the two did not materialise after Ingebrigtsen withdrew following his Friday 5000m victory. Over the previous three nights the world’s leading athletes contested for a new title and a shared purse of $10 million (approximately £7.4 million) at the innovative event. World Athletics president Lord Coe expressed hope that the competition will play a central role in shaping the sport’s future. More to follow.