Novuna GB & NI Light Up On Day One Of The Ultimate Championships
by 12th September 2026
The Novuna GB & NI team delivered on the opening evening of the World Athletics Ultimate Championships.
The evening got underway with the highly anticipated mixed 4x100m relay, where the Novuna GB & NI quartet finished third in a blisteringly fast contest. The USA claimed the inaugural title, with Jamaica in second. The newly crowned European Champion, Romell Glave, got the team off to a strong start, handing over to Imani-Lara Lansiquot, who powered down the back straight and passed to Jeremiah Azu, who attacked the bend to pass the baton to Success Eduan for the final 100m, crossing the line in 40.26.
Imani-Lara Lansiquot said after the race: "We're absolutely learning on the job. I think my first time ever exchange was probably like an hour ago. It speaks volumes to the chemistry that we have in this team. ?We came here to win. We had that kind of level of blind confidence. We know that individually we can compete with the best in the world and next time we'll put that right."
In the women’s long jump, Jazmin Sawyers had a brilliant competition, finishing second under the Budapest lights. After opening her competition with a no-jump, Sawyers jumped 6.59 to land her in fourth.
The competition featured a new knockout format introduced by World Athletics, with the bottom two athletes eliminated after the second round and a further two after round three, leaving the top four to contest the final jump.
The Stoke athlete saved her best for last, soaring out to 6.78m in the fourth round to move into second place, finishing behind Lapichino (ITA), who claimed the Ultimate victory with 6.90m.
European silver medallist and British record holder, Keely Hodgkinson comfortably front-ran her semi-final, pulling away in the last 300m to cross the line in 1:57.57 to take her through into tomorrow evening's final, where she will join Broeders-Bol (NED) and Werro (SUI), who both qualified in the second semi-final.
Touching on the new competition: “I liked it! I wasn't sure how it was going to feel on the track. When I'm talking to athletes around world, I don't even feel like we are racing sometimes as we're all just having a good time. Then it's time to lock in. The moment we got on the track, it did feel like it was championship, so that's what was good and then we go again tomorrow and raise the game again."
Matthew Hudson-Smith also safely advanced to the men's 400m final. The British record holder stormed out of the blocks commanding the opening 200m, coming into the last 100m in the lead. He was narrowly caught on the line by Pattison (USA) to take second place with a time of 44.49 and safely through to the final.
Yemi Mary John, who finished fifth at the European Championships earlier this season, finished fifth with a time of 50.38 in her semi-final, just missing out on a spot in the women’s 400m final by 0.04 seconds, finishing a very respectable ninth overall.
"To finish ninth at Ultimate's when I came in 13th ranked so to be able to bump up four places. It's been a hell of a season; so much progress has been made this year. Last year, going into world champs, I was about 30th, so going from 30-something ranked, unsure how this will play out in world rankings. I'm not too sure but hopefully that will bump me up to sort of top 10 or round about. It is such a big jump; it’s so exciting, and we have to be in that World final next year."