Lead image for Why Kenyan stars have been locked out of World Athletics Ultimate Championship.
A number of factors have conspired to deny Kenya a strong representation in the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship scheduled for September 11 to 13, 2026, in Budapest, Hungary.
Olympics and world 10,000 metres and 5,000m champion, Beatrice Chebet and Olympic and world 1,500m champion, Faith Kipyegon, will not compete in the championship.
Chebet, who holds both the 10,000m and 5,000m world records, is currently on maternity break, having welcomed her firstborn with her husband, Peter Bii, on June 11 this year.
Kipyegon took a break from athletics on August 19 this year to focus on rehabilitating a recurring hamstring injury, prematurely ending her season.
World 800m champion Lilian Odira is a major doubt for having withdrawn from the Zurich Diamond League, the penultimate leg of the 2026 Diamond League that was due yesterday in the Swiss capital due to an illness.
She announced that she was unwell after finishing seventh in the women’s 800m in Lussaune, Switzerland in one minute, 59.25 minutes in a race won by home athlete Audrey Werro in a meet record time of 1:55.33 on August 21.
“Since Lausanne, I have felt weaker and after medical advice, we decided it’s not wise to race in Zurich,” Odira said. The Diamond League Grand Finale, also known as the AG Memorial Van Damme Meeting, will be staged from September 4 to 5 at King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels, Belgium.
The World Athletics Ultimate Championship is a brand-new athletics competition designed to bring the sport’s biggest stars together for one showdown at the end of the season.