Topic, Boskovic Head to Budapest for $150,000 Prize

The trophy is already standing on its podium beside the arena in Budapest, empty. It goes to whoever reaches the top of their event first, tomorrow evening, or Saturday, or Sunday, and it happens immediately, within a minute of the winning jump or throw, with no wait for a ceremony the next day. Every competitor already carries their own bracelet with their name engraved on it, handmade by Hungarian designers and jewelers, and it only becomes part of the trophy once the winner presses it into place. Angelina Topic is preparing for exactly that scene tomorrow, at the debut Ultimate Championship.

The first Ultimate World Championship in athletics starts on September 11 and runs through the 13th, across three evening sessions: Friday from 7:08 pm to 9:49 pm, Saturday and Sunday from 6:08 pm to 8:49 pm, all Central European Time. The program covers 28 events, the total prize fund comes to $10 million, and the winner of each event takes home $150,000.

Serbia is sending three athletes: Topic in the high jump, Adriana Vilagos in the javelin throw and Luka Boskovic in the long jump. Topic is first onto the field, already on day one at 7:13 pm, while Boskovic jumps on September 12 starting at 7:44 pm. There had been talk earlier that Ivana Spanovic might join them in the triple jump, but that option fell through, so the team stayed at three.

Who’s Coaching Whom

Dragutin Topic is preparing both Angelina Topic and Boskovic for the Budapest meet, while Vilagos is coached by her mother, Djerdji Vilagos. Topic says few coaches in the world guide several athletes in top form at the same time.

Even at the competition itself, with more than one athlete of mine competing, I have to go through all that stress several times over. It’s not easy, of course, but the satisfaction doubles too. Their qualification for a championship at the very top of the world is already joy squared, the success has already been achieved.

He says there are effectively no rule changes to worry about, except in the event Boskovic competes in.

For Angelina in the high jump, there are none. For Luka in the long jump, there are: he’ll have to secure a place among the top six in his first two jumps to earn the right to at least two more.

Boskovic Chases the Eight-Meter Mark as the Weather Turns Against Him

Boskovic turned 20 on July 6, and set his personal best of 8.23 meters on June 26 at the Hanzekovic Memorial in Zagreb, finishing second behind Uzbekistan’s Anvar Anvarov. He jumped even farther, 8.33 meters, on August 10 in qualifying at the European Championship in Birmingham, but that jump wasn’t ratified because of a 2.3 meters per second tailwind, above the allowed 2.0. His official record therefore still stands at 8.23.

In technical events like the long jump, eight competitors take part, the Olympic and world champions plus the six highest ranked, and there’s only a final. On the track, in the middle and long distance races, 12 competitors line up at the start.

Dragutin Topic, though, is more worried about the weather than the format.

The only thing that worries me is the weather. I’m hoping for something warmer than what’s been forecast, and they’re saying it’ll be 15 degrees Celsius and rain on Friday and Saturday, which doesn’t suit Angelina at all.

Why Does the Ultimate Championship Have No Medals?

The Ultimate Championship is the first major athletics competition with no medals at all. The winner receives a trophy shaped like a stone statue bearing the star from the championship’s logo, with a slot that holds that athlete’s own bracelet, while second and third place go home with no award whatsoever. World Athletics president Sebastian Coe explained the move this way.

We made a deliberate decision to move away from medals as the reward at the Ultimate Championship. This global championship is built on the ambition to produce a single athlete who emerges as the best. Awarding prizes for the top three finishers wasn’t consistent with that basic concept, so instead we focused on trophies that will be given to the winners of each event.

Broadcast coverage reaches close to 200 countries, through the BBC, NBCUniversal, L’Equipe, NRK, SVT, Polsat and TBS, so the trophy beside the arena will also be watched by audiences seeing a medal-free athletics championship for the first time.

Topic, despite his criticism of the long jump qualifying format, stands behind the idea as a whole.

This competition is very well conceived. Only the best have the right to take part. Athletes have extra motivation, the prizes are outstanding, but it’s also a matter of prestige to qualify for a spectacle like this. I think this competition is exactly what athletes need, and it’s a rare good move by the World Federation. If they also stick to normal rules and put every event on the program without discrimination, then it’ll be a complete success.

For the qualifying format of the long jump itself, though, he has no kind words.

I think the format they’ve come up with is quite bizarre, unnecessary. The competition itself takes on a different flow and the rest time gets cut short. I think that will end up depriving spectators of top-level results.

The three Serbians, then, are heading into the unknown, a competition with no precedent in their own history. Topic is first into the high jump sector tomorrow, and Boskovic looks on Saturday, September 12, for a jump that opens the door to the top six and the right to at least two more attempts. If any of the three reaches the podium beside the arena, we’ll know it immediately, with no wait for an awards ceremony.