diff --git a/HUGO_CHECKSUM b/HUGO_CHECKSUM
deleted file mode 100644
index a809547..0000000
--- a/HUGO_CHECKSUM
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-fd16b6723365e2d60bef9dd2c0a12a0b046185b033973a85eae7e5979693b799
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/HUGO_VERSION b/HUGO_VERSION
deleted file mode 100644
index ad0e098..0000000
--- a/HUGO_VERSION
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-0.121.1
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
index 673189e..5cb5869 100644
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -1,5 +1,3 @@
 include licenses/LICENSE-hugo.txt
-include HUGO_VERSION
-include HUGO_CHECKSUM
 include python_hugo/binaries/*
 exclude python_hugo/binaries/hugo-*
diff --git a/python_hugo/cli.py b/python_hugo/cli.py
index 42daaa7..b3c0ae4 100644
--- a/python_hugo/cli.py
+++ b/python_hugo/cli.py
@@ -12,8 +12,7 @@
 from pathlib import Path
 from functools import lru_cache
 
-# Read Hugo version from VERSION file in repository root
-HUGO_VERSION = Path(__file__).parent.parent.joinpath("HUGO_VERSION").read_text().strip()
+HUGO_VERSION = "0.121.1"
 
 FILE_EXT = ".exe" if sys.platform == "win32" else ""
 HUGO_PLATFORM = {
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 27470b8..3a9506e 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -13,18 +13,15 @@
 from wheel.bdist_wheel import bdist_wheel, get_platform
 from wheel.macosx_libfile import calculate_macosx_platform_tag
 
-# Keep in sync with pyproject.toml and update SHA-256 hashes accordingly
-
-# read Hugo version from VERSION file
-HUGO_VERSION = Path("HUGO_VERSION").read_text().strip()
+# Has to be kept in sync with the version in python_hugo/cli.py
+HUGO_VERSION = "0.121.1"
 HUGO_RELEASE = (
     f"https://github.com/gohugoio/hugo/archive/refs/tags/v{HUGO_VERSION}.tar.gz"
 )
-
 # The pooch tool will download the tarball into the hugo_cache/ directory.
 # We will point the build command to that location to build Hugo from source
 HUGO_CACHE_DIR = "hugo_cache"
-HUGO_SHA256 = Path("HUGO_CHECKSUM").read_text().strip()
+HUGO_SHA256 = "fd16b6723365e2d60bef9dd2c0a12a0b046185b033973a85eae7e5979693b799"
 FILE_EXT = ".exe" if sys.platform == "win32" else ""
 
 # Normalise platform strings to match the Go toolchain
@@ -300,7 +297,7 @@ def run(self):
         "python_hugo": [
             f"binaries/hugo-{HUGO_VERSION}-{HUGO_PLATFORM}-{os.environ.get('GOARCH', HUGO_ARCH)}"
             + FILE_EXT
-        ]
+        ],
     },
     include_package_data=True,
     entry_points={"console_scripts": ["hugo=python_hugo.cli:__call"]},