All eyes on Brussels as athletes fight for points in Diamond League
There are 14 more scoring disciplines being contested in Brussels, all of which are loaded with global stars of the sport.
The world’s best athletes will head to Brussels for the Allianz Memorial Van Damme on Thursday as the Belgian capital hosts the final point-scoring opportunity in the 2022 Wanda Diamond League ahead of the series finale next week.
Many of the qualifying spots for the final have already been claimed, following the recent Diamond League meetings in Lausanne and Monaco.
But there are 14 more scoring disciplines being contested in Brussels, all of which loaded with global stars of the sport.
The men’s 800m and women’s 100m, for example, pit two world champions against one another. Other disciplines – such as the men’s pole vault, women’s high jump and women’s javelin – feature the full set of medallists from the World Athletics Championships Oregon22.
World and Olympic champion Emmanuel Korir leads the loaded 800m field. The Kenyan will take on the two men who joined him on the podium in Oregon: Djamel Sedjati and Marco.
They will also face world 1500m champion Jake Wightman, world indoor champion Mariano Garcia – the Spaniard who recently beat Wightman to the European title in Munich – and Commonwealth champion Wycliffe Kinyamal.
In what looks set to be one of the highest-quality two-lap races of the year, the world-leading mark of 1:43.52 – which has stood since mid-June – should come under threat.
It’s not the only event in which two world champions will clash. Jamaican duo Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson – who won the world 100m and 200m titles respectively – will face off over 100m for the third time this year.
Fraser-Pryce, five-time world champion at the distance, is undefeated over 100m this year, but Jackson finished right behind her in Oregon and Monaco.
All six of Fraser-Pryce’s 100m finals this year have been won in sub-10.70 times. If she continues that trend on Thursday, she will break the meeting record of 10.72 she has held since 2013.
Other athletes in the field include Ivory Coast’s Marie-Josee Ta Lour, who set an African record of 10.72 earlier this year, USA’s Sha’Carri Richardson, and Aleia Hobbs, winner in Lausanne last week when Fraser-Pryce withdrew as a precaution at the last minute.
Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn has won at five Diamond League meetings this year, setting meeting records in Rome (12.37), Silesia (12.34) and Lausanne (12.34).
The two women who joined the Puerto Rican on the Olympic podium last year – Kendra Harrison and Megan Tapper – will also be racing in Brussels, so too are world silver medallist Britany Anderson, European champion Pia Skrzyszowska and world indoor silver medallist Devynne Charlton.
The Van Damme Memorial meeting record of 12.42 has stood since 1986, but with a field like this it may not last much longer.
In the men’s 200m, world bronze medallist Erriyon Knighton takes on Commonwealth champion Jereem Richards, world and Olympic finalist Joseph Fahnbulleh and Cuban record-holder Reynier Mena.
The women’s 400m, meanwhile, features world bronze medallist Sada Williams of Barbados, world 800m bronze medallist Mary Moraa, as well as Candice McLeod, Fiordaliza Cofil and Lieke Klaver.
Elsewhere, a non-scoring women’s long jump contest features Commonwealth champion Ese Brume of Nigeria, NACAC champion Quanesha Burks of the USA and world indoor pentathlon champion Noor Vidts of Belgium.
