World Athletics unveiled a host of innovations for its inaugural Ultimate Championship on September 11-13 in Budapest, with the presentation of broadcast, infield, fan experience, graphics and athlete interaction all being revamped specifically for the competition.
The broadcast will follow a “show script” in order to maximize the live telecast window rather than be bound to a traditional timetable, while the infield will be blacked out when not in use as on screen graphics will featuring augmented reality as the on screen clock will centered to improve ease of view.
“We have said from the very beginning that we are doing things differently with the Ultimate Championship,” World Athletics president Sebastian Coe said. “These innovations offer a taste of how we intend to move the sport forward with this brand-new global championship, elevating athletics and its many stars while reimagining how fans will experience the inaugural edition.”
The changes are meant to be noticeable during the live telecast, inside of Gyula Zsivotzky National Athletics Centre and in the days before the competition, with organizers carefully picking apart each element of what the inaugural event could look like and then enhancing the concept with the intent of pushing the presentation of the sport forward.
Broadcast gets the biggest overhaul, with tailored graphics featuring augmented reality, athlete headshots, data points and a refreshed feel along with win probabilities. The race clock will shift to the bottom center of the screen “enabling a more seamless user experience on vertical platforms” like smartphones.
Instead of a conventional timetable, a “show script” means that every moment on air will be accounted for and no storyline will be left out so attention can be placed on an event on the track or the infield instead of both. More than 20 major broadcasters will be broadcasting the even live, including the BBC (United Kingdom), NBCUniversal (United States), NRK (Norway), SVT (Sweden), L’Équipe (France), CPSL (Caribbean), Polsat (Poland) and TBS (Japan) with others likely to be added in the coming weeks.
During competition, the track and field will instantly look different to viewers. The infield will be a rich shade of black and only the parts in use will be illuminated so fans can focus on the action where it occurs. In a rendering shared by World Athletics, white markers are the only pop of color on the infield with stadium lights directed onto the track.
Mondo Duplantis will deliver an anthem written specifically for the event and post race interviews will be shown in stadium and live broadcast simultaneously. An athlete experiences will connect fans directly to the stars as part of “The Day Before,” with a press conference, red carpet where athletes can make fashionable entrances, media session built for content creation and a kids’ day led by Melissa Jefferson-Wooden and Letsile Tebogo.
The tight three day format of 28 disciplines is strictly built for a television audience and will only offer semifinals and finals.
Track events will have eight athletes, and two semifinals (100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 100m hurdles/110m hurdles and 400m hurdles) with the top four from each event making the final. The 1,500m, 5,000m and relay races will only be finals. All field events will finals only, horizontal jumps and throws to feature four rounds and each of the eight athletes guaranteed two attempts. Following the second round, the top six will get another attempt and the top four in the final round, who will have one final attempt in an 8-8-6-4 format.
