The Diamond Race trophy (© Getty Images)
On Friday 5 September, Brussels will host the second of two finals for the 2014 IAAF Diamond League series as 16 more Diamond Race winners will be crowned.
Of those 16 events, the Diamond Race champions have already been decided in eight of them, but athletes must compete in their discipline in Brussels to secure the USD$40,000 bonus and the Diamond Race trophy.
Those eight athletes are sprint hurdler Pascal Martinot-Lagarde, 400m runner Novlene Williams-Mills, steeplechaser Jairus Birech, 800m runner Eunice Sum, pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie, 400m hurdler Kaliese Spencer, triple jumper Caterine Ibarguen and shot putter Valerie Adams.
But the Diamond Race for eight other disciplines in Brussels is still undecided, so a victory in the Belgian capital will take on extra significance.
A first-place finish at an IAAF Diamond League meeting is worth four points, with two points going to the second-place finisher and one to the third-place finisher. But at the IAAF Diamond League finals, those points are doubled.
If, at the end of the series, athletes are tied on points, then the Diamond Race goes to the athlete with most victories. If athletes are still tied, then the title will go to whichever athlete performed better at their event’s Diamond Race final.
The closest battles will come in the women’s 200m, where just two points separate Allyson Felix and Blessing Okagbare. Whoever wins in Brussels will take the Diamond Race trophy.
Conversely, the men’s long jump in Brussels is wide open. Li Jinzhe, Christian Taylor, Ignisious Gaisah, Godfrey Mokoena and Zarck Visser need only to win to secure the Diamond Race title. If Li, Taylor and Gaisah finish outside the top two in Brussels, then it could even open up an opportunity for four other athletes to steal the Diamond Race if they were able to pull off a surprise win.
And while the high jumpers have been busy chasing the world record all season, in Brussels the main focus for Bogdan Bondarenko and Mutaz Essa Barshim will be the Diamond Race. They are the only two men left in contention, and whichever one finishes ahead of the other in Brussels will win the Diamond Race.
Lavillenie is set to make history, having won the Diamond Race in the pole vault since 2010, the inaugural year of the IAAF Diamond League. No other athlete has won five Diamond Race trophies.
A victory in Brussels would make Adams the only athlete to win all seven 2014 IAAF Diamond League fixtures for any discipline.
The Diamond Race finals for the other 16 disciplines were contested at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Zurich on 28 August.
Diamond Race statistics for the 16 Brussels finals can be downloaded as a PDF from the right-hand side of the page.
IAAF
