Masai Russell after winning in Zurich (© World Athletics)
Just days after breaking their respective world records in Zurich, Alison dos Santos and Masai Russell return to the track at the Wanda Diamond League Final in Brussels.
Saturday (5), the second evening of action at the Allianz Memorial Van Damme, brings down the curtain on another pulsating Diamond League season, with Dos Santos and Russell among the standout track athletes on show.
After winning in Zurich, Dos Santos reflected on the fact that the previous time he had dipped below the 400m hurdles world record, he had finished with bronze at the Tokyo Olympics. This time, he was a class apart, clocking 45.80. His closest challenger in Belgium on times this year, Matheus Lima, is nearly one-and-a-half seconds slower for the distance.
Russell is also in electric form over the barriers. She took 0.03 off the previous world record with her 12.09 in Switzerland and almost immediately turned her attention to becoming the first woman in history to break 12 seconds.
Among those aiming to stop her on Saturday night is the woman she usurped as world record-holder, Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan. Other challengers include world indoor champion Devynne Charlton and Nadine Visser of the Netherlands.
The women’s 800m has proved one of the most eye-catching events on the Diamond League calendar all season long. World leader Audrey Werro will renew her rivalry with Femke Broeders-Bol over two laps of the track.
Werro has been the form athlete at the distance, with the leading contenders pushing each other in pursuit of Jarmila Kratochvílová’s 43-year-old world record. The Swiss athlete has fared best to date, getting to within 0.42 of that mark.
The final night in Brussels gives the Diamond League winners in events contested at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship automatic qualification to the US$10million showdown the following week.
Challengers line up to topple Tebogo
Having already booked his spot in the 200m as the Olympic champion, Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo will test himself over that distance in what looks like a rapid field.
Tebogo’s best of 19.84 this season is some way shy of his 19.46 PB, while the fastest man in the world this year is US athlete Kenny Bednarek, who leads the rankings with 19.62. Other threats come from South Africa’s Sinesipho Dambile and Makanakaishe Charamba from neighbouring Zimbabwe.
The other sprint event on the night is the women’s 100m, in which Sha’Carri Richardson lines up as the quickest this year with 10.77. She will be joined by European champion Amy Hunt and the dual Jamaican threat of Tina Clayton and Jonielle Smith.
Jessica Hull declared that her time was coming after winning double medals at the World Indoor Championships and rising to No.1 in the world rankings. She is steadily delivering on that threat in the 1500m, but the event looks wide open, with Georgia Hunter Bell, Dorcus Ewoi and Birke Haylom among those racing alongside her.
Morocco’s Soufiane El Bakkali has made no secret of his desire to break Lamecha Girma’s world record for the 3000m steeplechase and tops a field featuring eight of the world’s top 10.
Marileidy Paulino has shown little to suggest her crown as the world’s best 400m runner is slipping, having broken the Diamond League record with 48.48 to win in Paris at the end of June.
A young pretender is emerging in the form of Czech runner Lurdes Gloria Manuel. The 21-year-old looked sublime when winning the World Indoor Championships in March in Toruń, and later improved her PB to 49.37 when finishing second to Paulino in Paris. But Henriette Jæger, Natalia Bukowiecka and Nickisha Pryce are all ranked higher than Manuel in 2026.
Bahrain’s Birhanu Balew, meanwhile, tops the field for the men’s 5000m, with US duo Grant Fisher and Graham Blanks his biggest rivals on paper.
High jump battle hotting up
The women’s high jump appears to be reaching a crescendo in the latter part of the season. World champion Nicola Olyslagers won the preceding Diamond League meeting in Zurich with 2.02m, just 2cm shy of her PB.
In Heilbronn, Olyslagers’ fellow Australian Eleanor Patterson was then embroiled in a thrilling head-to-head with Olympic champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh. Both cleared two metres, but Patterson sealed the win after clearing the height at her first attempt.
Also in the field is another two-metre jumper in Nafi Thiam, though her best this season of 1.84m is some way shy of that.
Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage has been enjoying the season of his life in the men’s javelin, the Commonwealth champion winning 11 of his past 12 events. Arguably the most impressive was his career-best 92.62m in Rome, while he also threw 92.07m in Zurich last week.
The men to finish second and third to him respectively in Zurich – Anderson Peters and Dawid Wegner – again aim to topple him a few days on, as does current world champion Keshorn Walcott.
In the women’s javelin, Haruka Kitaguchi may have comfortably booked her place at the Ultimate Championship as Olympic champion, but she is currently bidding to get back to her best with super coach Jan Železný.
She showed good form in winning in Lausanne recently, but all eyes will be on Chinese rising star Yan Ziyi, the 18-year-old whose 71.74m put her second on the all-time list.
Italian Larissa Iapichino is bidding for a hat-trick of Diamond League titles in the long jump, while Belgian fans at the King Baudouin Stadium will be hoping for a strong result from home athlete Noor Vidts.
Iapichino’s fellow Italian Leonardo Fabbri is the form athlete in the men’s shot put with a world-leading 22.74m and a second European title recently picked up in Birmingham. Joe Kovacs, at 37, is still challenging for the biggest honours, as is 34-year-old Kiwi Tom Walsh.
It was in the second round of the triple jump at the European Championships that another Italian, Andy Diaz Hernandez, sailed to 18.15m, comfortably the biggest jump of the year and a lifetime best.
The question is whether he can emulate that leap with Olympic and world champion Pedro Pichardo, Jordan Scott and Yasser Mohammed Triki all lining up against him.
Katie Moon may be world ranked No.1 in the women’s pole vault, but three rivals in her event – Hana Moll, Angelica Moser and Imogen Ayris – have all cleared higher heights than her this season.
Matt Majendie for World Athletics
