Olympic champion is back for a $150,000 800m battle in Budapest, while Josh Kerr's much-anticipated first meeting with Jakob Ingebrigtsen since Paris now hangs in the balance.

Keely Hodgkinson has been confirmed for the 800m at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship, setting up a rematch with Audrey Werro and Femke Broeders-Bol despite a recent hamstring scare that had put her participation in doubt.

The Olympic champion has missed recent Diamond League races involving both rivals after experiencing hamstring discomfort following the European Championships last month, where she finished second behind Werro and ahead of Broeders-Bol. But her coach, Trevor Painter, confirmed on X that she will be fit to race in Budapest this week. "She will be there," he wrote, ending speculation that Hodgkinson might miss the event.

The women's 800m semi-finals take place on Friday, with the final on Saturday, where $150,000 awaits the winner as part of the championship's $10 million (£8.6 million) prize pot — the largest in the sport's history.

Werro has dominated the event this season, adding the European title to a run of form that has taken her within range of Jarmila Kratochvilova's 1:53.28 world record, which has stood since 1983 — the oldest mark in the sport. The 22-year-old was pushed close by Broeders-Bol at Friday's Diamond League final, while Hodgkinson, who set a world indoor record over the distance earlier this year, was only two tenths of a second behind Werro in Birmingham. With Broeders-Bol still adapting to the two-lap event after switching from the 400m hurdles, in which she is world champion, Budapest looks set to offer a genuine three-way battle for the title.

Josh Kerr returns to 1500m racing for the first time this season on Sunday, on the same Budapest track where he won his first world title in 2023, in what was set to be a first meeting with Jakob Ingebrigtsen since the pair contested the Olympic final in Paris two years ago. Both were awarded exceptional invitations to the event; Kerr arrives off the back of a world indoor 3000m title, a mile world record and Commonwealth Games gold, while Ingebrigtsen continues to work back from Achilles tendon surgery.

There has been speculation that Ingebrigtsen, the Olympic and European 5000m champion, could opt to focus on that event instead of the 1500m in Budapest, with a place in the World Road Running Championships 5km later this month also in his plans. No official change to his entry has been confirmed.

That speculation grew stronger after Friday's Diamond League final in Brussels, where Ingebrigtsen ran a season's best of 3:30.52 for fourth place — quicker than the season's best posted by Olympic champion Cole Hocker, despite a messy race in which Ingebrigtsen ended up doing much of the pace-setting himself.

According to Norwegian outlet Dagbladet, sources close to the Norwegian now consider it unlikely he will start in the 1500m in Budapest at all, which would end any prospect of a first meeting with Kerr since the Paris Olympic final.

Ingebrigtsen's brother and agent, Henrik, told Dagbladet that this version of his younger brother is still "a shadow of himself" compared to his best, but that the direction of travel is encouraging heading into next season.

Ingebrigtsen himself struck a fierier tone with Norwegian broadcaster NRK immediately after the Brussels race, venting his frustration with rivals he felt had raced too passively, before posting on Instagram the following morning to strike a more measured note, pointing to the positives of racing himself back into form with each outing.

"I love racing and I try to do as much as I can," said Ingebrigtsen. "I'm excited to run in Budapest!"

Look out for a Josh Kerr interview live on the AW website at 4pm Wednesday