Bednarek completes Ultimate sprint double with 200m win in Budapest

Kenny Bednarek in the 200m at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship Budapest 26 (© Getty Images)

Twenty-four hours after winning the 100m title, Kenny Bednarek completed the sprint double by claiming the 200m crown in a world-leading 19.52 (-0.1m/s) at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship Budapest 26 on Sunday (13).

Speaking at the end of his four-race campaign in the Hungarian capital, the US 27-year-old said 2026 was the year in which he focused on making progress. He proved it on Sunday, scorching to a PB to win clear ahead of Botswana’s Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo and his US compatriot Courtney Lindsey.

The performance moved Bednarek to seventh on the world all-time list, two places behind Tebogo who ran 19.46 when winning his Olympic title in Paris two years ago.

Bednarek was second that day – and on the day of the 2021 Olympic 200m final and during the world 200m finals in 2022 and 2025. But after those four silver medals, he won his first individual global title in Budapest on Saturday.

Showing no signs of tiredness after two rounds of the 100m the day before and a 200m semifinal earlier on Sunday, Bednarek led the final at the half way stage and continued to pull away, leaving Tebogo to chase him over the finish line in 19.76 – a season’s best. Lindsey also achieved his fastest race of the year, clocking 19.79 to finish third ahead of South Africa’s Sinesipho Dambile and Canada’s Andre De Grasse as the top five dipped under 20 seconds.

Bednarek had cruised through the semifinals a couple of hours earlier, winning the first race in 19.86 despite easing as he reached the finish line, glancing at Lindsey who was second in 19.89. Tebogo was third in that semifinal in 19.96. Dambile and De Grasse also looked at each other as they secured the top two spots in the second semifinal – Dambile winning in 19.80 ahead of De Grasse who eased over the line in 19.87.

“Oh my God, it has been a crazy few days,” said Bednarek, who earned US$150,000 for each of his two wins in Budapest. “I am just happy to be here and performance-wise I give myself an A+ because of the couple of things I have been working on – I put them together today and earlier in the week.

“This whole event has been very nice. On the red carpet I managed to show a bit of my personality, which is different as I'm usually a more quiet type of person. I loved the lane draw and think we should do it more often. This is a phenomenal event and I'm happy that it is showing our sport in a different light.

“This was the year where I focused on making progress. I need to look back at what I did overall, but I believe I did well. Coming home with two wins in Budapest is amazing.”

Jess Whittington for World Athletics