Last winter, after Christian Coleman broke the World Indoor record for the 60 meters. I asked Maurice Greene, the man who had held the record since 1999, about the prospects of Mr. Coleman. Maurice wrote, "9.7 and possibly faster."
Well, Christian ran 9.79 on Friday, the seventh fastest of all times! And he looked, AWESOME!
The AG Van Damme was a fitting way, along with Zurich, to end the Diamond League season!
Coleman WL, Barega WJR and much more
BRUSSELS (BEL, Aug 31): That was an excellent ending of the 9th IAAF Diamond League season at the 42nd AG Memorial Van Damme at King Baudouin Stadium with some 40 000 spectators. World leads in men 100 m and 5000 m, meet record in women steeple what was also 3rd best time ever. And home wins for Sacoor and Thiam. Korir and Miller-Uibo remain unbeaten in 2018 and Naser made it to easy win after arriving to Brussels some 7 hourse before her race from Indonesia.
Short reviews
Men
100m - Christian Coleman smashed the world lead and came within 0.03 of Usain Bolt's meeting record with a 9.79 clocking, moving to equal seventh on the world all-time lists. Ronnie Baker (9.93 after bad start 0.251 reaction), Yohan Blake (9.94, fastest of 2018 for him) and Reece Prescod (9.99) all broke 10 seconds as well.
400m (non-DL) - World U20 champion Jonathan Sacoor edged out teammate and training partner Kevin Borlee, 45.59 to 45.62 to give the spectators something to cheer.
800m - Kenya's Emmanuel Korir maintained his unbeaten season, winning in 1:44.72 from Poland's Marcin Lewandowski (1:45.21).
5000m - The best 5000m race in six years with three athletes breaking 12:50 (only the third time this has happened in the same race) and eight breaking 13:00. Ethiopia's Selemon Barega, 18, moved to fourth on the world all-time lists with a world U20 record (and DL record) of 12:43.02 ahead of teammates Hagos Gebrhiwet (12:45.82 PB) and Yomif Kejelcha (12:46.79 PB). Paul Chelimo was the top non-Ethiopian in sixth in a 12:57.55 PB and Bashir Abdi retired from the track in 11th in 13:04.91. Nine of the 13 finishers set PBs.
110m hurdles - Fourth sub-13 clocking of the season for Sergey Shubenkov, winning in 12.97 from Orlando Ortega (13.10) with Pascal Martinot-Lagarde fourth (13.36).
High jump - Australia's Brandon Starc continued his strong end to the season with a 2.33m clearance, beating European champion Mateusz Pryzbylko on countback. Italy's Gianmarco Tamberi was third with 2.31m.
Triple jump - Pedro Pablo Pichardo had the better of Christian Taylor, 17.49m to 17.31m and denied his 7th DL Trophy.
Pole vault - Fresh from winning in Zurich, Timur Morgunov cleared 5.93m for victory in Brussels ahead of Sam Kendricks (5.88m) and Shawn Barber (5.83m). Renaud Lavillenie and Armand Duplantis were fifth (5.73m) and seventh (5.68m) respectively.
Discus - Fedrick Dacres' first round throw of 68.67m was good enough to defeat Lithuania's Andrius Gudzius (67.56m) and Sweden's Daniel Stahl (66.74m).
Women
200m - Shaunae Miller-Uibo remains unbeaten across all distances in 2018, winning the 200m in 22.12.
400m - A day after running in the 4x100m and 4x400m at the Asian Games in Jakarta, Bahrain's Salwa Eid Naser (arrived at 1.30 pm on Friday to Brussels after flying from Jakarta) dominated proceedings in Brussels, winning in 49.33 by over a second from Phyllis Francis in 50.51.
800m (non-DL) - Lysney Sharp ran out a comfortable winner ahead of Sweden's Hanna Hermansson, 1:59.93 to 2:00.96.
1500m - European champion Laura Muir held off a late charge from Shelby Houlihan (her first loss of 2018 outdoors), 3:58.49 to 3:58.94. Second in Zurich last night over 5000m, Sifan Hassan was third tonight in 3:59.41 with Gudaf Tsegay fourth in 3:59.68.
3000m steeplechase - Third fastest time in history for Beatrice Chepkoech, winning in 8:55.10 after a 2:52 first kilometre. Norah Jeruto also broke nine minutes for the first time with 8:59.62 ahead of Hyvin Kiyeng in 9:01.60 and Emma Coburn in 9:06.51.
100m hurdles - Brianna McNeal edged out Kendra Harrison, 12.61 to 12.63. World champion Danielle Williams from Jamaica was a close third in 12.64.
400m hurdles (non-DL) - Ukraine's Anna Ryzhykova won in 55.38 from Belgium's Hanne Claes in 55.87.
Long jump - Colombia's Caterine Ibarguen followed up her victory in the triple jump in Zurich last night by winning the long jump tonight. She had the two best jumps of the contest: 6.74m and 6.80m. Shara Proctor improved to 6.70m in the fifth round.
High jump (non-DL) - Nafissatou Thiam's 1.89m clearance was sufficient for victory in her last competition of the season.
Discus - Sandra Perkovic suffered her first defeat of the season, and finished lower than second for the first time since the 2014 Continental Cup. Cuba's Yaime Perez (65.00m) and Brazil's Andressa de Morais (64.65m) overhauled Perkovic's 64.31m in the sixth round.
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