Emmanuel Wanyonyi returns to Budapest, the scene of one of his rare defeats at the World Championships back in 2023, chasing glory at the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship set for Friday, 11 to Sunday, 13 September.Download our Mozzart Sport App for more newsThe Olympic and World champion has been in stellar form, and is heading to the competition on the back of an impressive Diamond League run, that concluded with winning the trophy.He goes up against a field that has his fiercest competition led by Marco Arop, who returns to the track where he won his 2023 world title, defeating the Kenyan, as well as Djamel Sedjati, who has also been breathing down Wanyonyi’s neck during the course of the season.##NAJAVA_MECA_9945625##Wanyonyi already has a world record to his name in 2026, for the 1000m, but he and his coach Claudio Berardelli have made no secret of the fact that they are chasing David Rudisha’s 14-year-old 800m world record.He is less than a second away from his Kenyan compatriot’s mark of 1:40.91 this year. The man with a PB of 1:41.11 from 2024 won in Zurich last month in 1:41.76 and backed that up with another win at the Diamond League Final in Brussels.But any suggestions the 800m in Budapest might be a bit like the solo time trial that Rudisha made the London Olympics appear to be all those years ago have been dispelled by his rivals’ performances.Refugee team set for historic Youth Olympics debut in DakarAlgeria’s Sedjati was just a whisker behind Wanyonyi in their thrilling race in Zurich and less than a tenth of a second separates the fastest three in the world this year with Canada’s Arop also very much in contention. Arop claimed his world title ahead of Wanyonyi in Budapest in 2023 and has run 1:41.84 this year.Belgium’s Eliott Crestan and Spain’s Mohamed Attaoui respectively claimed world indoor 800m silver and bronze in Poland earlier this year, and will want to make their mark again.US protagonists in the line-up include Brandon Miller and 2019 world champion Donavan Brazier, plus there is a double British challenge looming in the form of Max Burgin and Ben Pattison.Why Lilian Odira will miss World Athletic's Ultimate ChampionshipThen there is Mark English, the first man to win gold for Ireland at the European Championships recently in Birmingham, while France’s Yanis Meziane stormed to a PB of 1:42.87 during the Diamond League Final to finish third and secure his place in Budapest.