{"id":199317,"date":"2026-09-07T18:19:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T18:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/199317\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T18:19:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T18:19:15","slug":"canadian-headliners-set-for-world-athletics-ultimate-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/199317\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian headliners set for World Athletics Ultimate Championships"},"content":{"rendered":"

The World Athletics Ultimate Championships in Budapest have released the final start list for the inaugural meeting, which begins Friday. The championships run from Sept. 11 to 13 and will bring together some of the world\u2019s fastest athletes, along with some of the biggest prize purses<\/a> in track and field, totalling US$10 million.\u00a0A strong contingent of Canadian record holders and champions will take to the start line.<\/p>\n

The relay squad<\/p>\n

The 4x100m mixed relay will open the meeting Friday, with Canada entering as a strong contender. The team is ranked third in the field with a season\u2019s best of 40.07 seconds.<\/p>\n

The squad of\u00a0Eliezer Adjibi,\u00a0Marie-\u00c9lo\u00efse Leclair,\u00a0Duan Asemota<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Audrey Leduc\u00a0qualified for the 2027 World Championships<\/a> at the Debswana World Athletics Relays Gaborone 26 in Gaborone, Botswana, in May, after a 40.30-second performance. They finished behind Jamaica, which set a world record of 39.62 seconds. It could take close to that time for Canada to claim the win in Budapest.<\/p>\n

While Team Canada has qualified for the event, its exact lineup for the championships remains uncertain.<\/p>\n

\"CanadaThe quartet of Sade McCreath, Audrey Leduc, Jacqueline Madogo\u00a0and Marie-\u00c9lo\u00efse Leclair set a new Canadian national record of 42.50 seconds in qualifying at Paris 2024. Photo: Nick Iwanyshyn
\nWomen\u2019s contingent<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s 200m record holder Leduc of Gatineau, Que., could kick things off in the mixed relay, but she is also entered in the women\u2019s 100m. Although she qualified for the 200m<\/a> with a sixth-place finish at the Diamond League final, she is not listed on the championships\u2019 200m start list and has opted to compete only in the 100m and relay. This may be Leduc\u2019s last opportunity to reclaim her 100m national record from Ajax, Ont.\u2019s Sad\u00e9 McCreath, who is also in the field.<\/p>\n

McCreath shattered the Canadian 100m record<\/a> in Edmonton with a 10.86s run in July, to take Leduc\u2019s mark by 0.08 seconds. However, she has not dipped under 11 seconds in a race since and has finished second to Leduc in both of their meetings this year.<\/p>\n

\"sadeCanada\u2019s Sad\u00e9 McCreath at the 2025 World Athletics Championships. Photo: Nick Iwanyshyn<\/p>\n

The two Canadian record holders will now go head-to-head in Budapest in one of the strongest 100m fields assembled this season.<\/p>\n

The men\u2019s squad<\/p>\n

The men\u2019s 200m in Budapest also has two Canadian sprint stars: Scarborough\u2019s\u00a0Andre De Grasse, the national record holder, and Toronto\u2019s Aaron Brown, the reigning Canadian champion.<\/p>\n

De Grasse opened the season strong with a season\u2019s best 19.84 at the Botswana Grand Prix in April, but has struggled to replicate that performance, breaking 20 seconds only once since. He did add a quick 100m time of 9.96 at the Silesia Diamond League meeting, finishing sixth, before clocking a relaxed 20.03 in the 200m in Zurich a few days later. In June, Brown won his 13th Canadian title<\/a> at the 2026 Canadian Track & Field Championships in the 200m, clocking 20.33. He also placed fourth in the 200m at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.<\/p>\n

\"AndreAndre De Grasse in the semi-final of the men\u2019s 200m at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. Photo: Nick Iwanyshyn<\/p>\n

In the long sprints, Vaughan, Ont.\u2019s Christopher Morales Williams will take on the men\u2019s 400m. Despite a disappointing semi-final exit at the Commonwealth Games, he appears to be back in top form after a 44.44 win at the GalAthletics Bellinzona meeting in Switzerland on Aug. 30. He will look to carry that form into Budapest, with Canadian fans hoping to see a repeat of his gold-medal performance at the 2026 World Athletics Indoor Championships.<\/p>\n

Marco Arop\u00a0of Edmonton rounds out Canada\u2019s entries and will line up alongside his rivals<\/a>, Kenya\u2019s\u00a0Emmanuel Wanyonyi and\u00a0Algeria\u2019s\u00a0Djamel Sedjati. In their Diamond League final matchup on Friday, Wanyonyi ran a commanding race to take the win, while Arop struggled to hold on in the final metres. Arop was dealing with an Achilles injury in early August and has had difficulty returning to his top form, but with a week of rest, Canadian fans will hope to see him challenge Wanyonyi and Sedjati for the top spot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The World Athletics Ultimate Championships in Budapest have released the final start list for the inaugural meeting, which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":199318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[10750,10425,13969,17,62517,35626,31563,5808,13981,62518,62519],"class_list":["post-199317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-aaron-brown","tag-andre-de-grasse","tag-audrey-leduc","tag-canada","tag-canadian-record-holders","tag-christopher-morales-williams","tag-marco-arop","tag-running-news","tag-sade-mccreath","tag-start-list","tag-world-athletics-ultimate-championships"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/199318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}