Mahuchikh, McLaughlin-Levrone and Duplantis among global stars announced for Brussels

World record-holders Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Mondo Duplantis – named World Athletes of the Year in 2022 – are among the first six athletes announced for the Wanda Diamond League meeting at the Allianz Memorial Van Damme in Brussels on 8 September.

USA’s McLaughlin-Levrone won the Diamond Trophy in the 400m hurdles in 2019 and the 23-year-old, who improved her world record to 50.68 when winning the world title in Oregon last July, will make her first appearance at the Memorial Van Damme during a season in which she has the chance to retain her world title in Budapest.

Sweden’s world and Olympic pole vault champion Duplantis, meanwhile, took his world record to 6.22m in Clermont-Ferrand earlier this year, and will be looking for another strong performance following the 6.05m meeting record he set in Brussels in 2021.

Joining them at the event is Ukraine’s world indoor high jump champion Yaroslava Mahuchikh, who returns to the scene of her 2.05m outdoor national record achieved last year.

“The Memorial feels like a home competition to me. I was very well received in Belgium,” she said at a press conference in Brussels on Thursday. “My ambitions this year lie primarily with the World Championships in Budapest, but I also hope to be able to shine at the Allianz Memorial Van Damme, just like last year.”

Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen last competed in Brussels in 2020, when he won the 1500m in 3:30.69. Since then he has become the Olympic champion and a world gold medallist in the 5000m.

Another athlete looking to put on a show is Olympic and world marathon bronze medallist Bashir Abdi, who hopes for a record-breaking run on home soil as he targets the European 10,000m mark held by Mo Farah. 

Also competing in front of home fans will be two-time Olympic and world heptathlon champion Nafissatou Thiam, who leapt 6.46m to finish fourth in the long jump at last year’s Memorial Van Damme.

Organisers for World Athletics