ByHarry Poole

BBC Sport journalist

As poster boy Armand Duplantis performed the Ultimate Championship's official song and fireworks lit up the sky above the newly crowned winners, athletics had taken its first strides in a new direction.

Across three fast-paced evenings the inaugural event played out in Budapest, where a record $10m (£7.4m) prize pot was distributed among the sport's biggest stars.

It looked different. It felt different. And, after three successive sell-out crowds and positive feedback from the athletes, it appears it is here to stay.

"It's a good first step towards changing track and field for the better," said Usain Bolt, event ambassador and the greatest sprinter in history.

"The athletes are loving it. It's a different energy, a different vibe."

World Athletics and its president, Lord Coe, worked for three years to tackle the absence of a season-ending pinnacle event.

Rather than keeping to an established formula, the Ultimate Championship was a bold, innovative undertaking - and it is hoped it can exist as a testing ground to help shape the sport's future.

"We walked out, we came through the little starlights and we all looked at each other and said, 'this is unbelievable'," Britain's four-time global relay medallist Imani-Lara Lansiquot told BBC Sport.

"It's so rare that things really live up to the expectation, the hype. I'm so, so glad, having been in this sport for many years now, to actually see us be put on a platform and celebrated in this way."

Athletics has long grappled with the issue of maintaining the interest and excitement which it generates at the Olympics throughout the rest of those four-year cycles.

The structure of the season has not always been clear for occasional viewers, while showdowns between the world's top athletes can be inconsistent. From a storytelling perspective, that is far from ideal.

They are all issues World Athletics has sought to begin addressing with the biennial Ultimate Championship, while also compensating the athletes with record prize money.

The premise is accessible: condensed, fast-paced sessions, with the best competing against the best for a global title and significant prize money.

A striking new appearance and several innovative features ensured the Ultimate Championship provided a notably different feel to that of the sport's established global championships.

An infield painted black sought to focus attention on the illuminated live events, while the horizontal jumps were decided in a bright pink sandpit.

A new trophy waited for the winners on a plinth, with their crowning moment marked by sparklers and celebratory music.

New features for TV audiences attempted to enhance the viewer experience, with athlete headshots, win probabilities and projected finishing positions flashing up on screen.

They did so with varying success.

Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen was unimpressed by his predicted finishing position of 12th before winning the 5,000m title, while Britain's 1500m champion Josh Kerr was expected to finish last - a result of both athletes racing lightly over recent seasons.

There was a notable athlete-centric feel to the event beyond the increased financial rewards.

The world's top athletes arrived on the eve of the championship for a red carpet event featuring photoshoots.

Athlete videos were played inside the stadium before events and winners held centre-court style interviews before being escorted to a champions' enclosure, where they joined Bolt and master of ceremonies Noah Lyles.

On the videos, Britain's Georgia Hunter Bell said: "I do like the fact that it builds personality and character for, hopefully, people to connect with the athletes. That storytelling is something that's really interesting.

"If you think of superstars like Carlos Alcaraz, Serena Williams or Tadej Pogacar, obviously they're great athletes, but it's their personality coming through that makes it fun."

BBC commentator and former 1500m world champion Steve Cram said: "The key is the exposure of it. It's good for the sport. It's really good for the profile of the athletes."

But the championship did not avoid criticism - the biggest its exclusion of certain events.

World Athletics took the decision to include events based on viewer behaviour, including pulse rate and sweat response.

That meant that distance track events, including the 3,000m steeplechase and 10,000m, were omitted, while only selected field events were included. Shot-putters and discus throwers were excluded entirely.

The event format was also altered. Round progression in several field events meant increased jeopardy, with the competition whittled down to the top four athletes by the fourth and final round.

British long jumper Jazmin Sawyers told BBC Sport: "Some field events didn't get any attention because they're not here. The championship is worse off for not having them.

"It looks amazing in stadium and broadcast. It's dynamic. It's exciting. There's a place for it alongside regular championships.

"I don't think I would like to see it replace regular championships, but I like the idea that this is something that exists alone."

On the long jump competition format, she added: "I would love to see all eight [athletes] get all four jumps. It makes it more interesting.

"I was able to come from fourth to second. What if the person who was eighth could go from eighth to first? That's more exciting."

On the matter of the excluded events, Coe said the disciplines held at the Ultimate Championship were "not in tablets of stone".

Looking ahead to the next edition in 2028, the Ultimate Championship will be positioned at the end of a season which is headlined by an Olympics.

It remains to be seen how it will fit alongside the Diamond League - the sport's season-long series - in the schedule of the athletes.

Former Olympic heptathlon champion Denise Lewis told BBC Sport: "People have wanted to see something that looked different and felt like a different product. World Athletics has delivered.

"I don't think we know what it will do to the global calendar of athletics.

"The overall picture and the landscape isn't clear. There is place for this, but I do think it is unclear what yet."

Coe accepted before the weekend that there would be "no guarantee we're going get everything right" and said a "slightly different format" might be considered in future.

But, regardless, the competition was a statement of intent as the sport seeks to engage with new, bigger audiences while ensuring its star names are rewarded with prize money closer aligned to that of other sports.

Speaking after become Britain's first Ultimate champion in the 1500m, Josh Kerr said: "I welcome anything that can push this sport on to make it more entertaining for people to watch and athletes to go out and compete.

"There is one last thing that we can do to get it right and that is to let athletes wear their own brands versus their country.

"I love my country and competing for them, but we don't make money from that. We don't have the pay cheques other sports do just yet.

"My $30,000 pay cheque just came through from winning the World Indoors, so $150,000 is a huge jump and I'm massively appreciative."