by Alfonz Juck
BRUSSELS (BEL, Sep 14): The second and final day of the Allianz Memorial van Damme concluded the long and very prosperous 2024 Wanda Diamond League season. In the cold, but this time wet weather again (first day 37 000 second day 34 000), athletes produced three meeting records. The 1500m queen Faith Kipyegon, by gaining her fifth DL trophy, Beatrice Chebet helped Medina Eisa to smash the World U20 record, and Leonardo Fabbri improved his national record. Thankful crowds watched five new DL champions crowned and defeated Olympic champions Crouser, Yavi, and Tebogo.
Short reviews
Women
200m: Premier DL title for Brown in 22.20 (0.2) over Neita (22.45).
200m (non-DL): McLaughlin-Levrone in 22.40 (0.1) clearly over the rest of the field.
1500m: Fifth DL title (and fourth consecutive) for Kipyegon in a MR of 3:54.75 ahead of Welteji (3:55.25) with top 9 finishers sub 4:00 and NR for the home country by Vanderelst (4:01.26) at 11th.
5000m: Chebet produced another stunning performance by winning in 14:09.82 MR, missing her own WL just by 0.3sec. Eisa, finishing second, smashed the World U20 record with 14:21.89; however, she was already faster last year (14:16.54), but without an anti-doping test after the race, Tesfay finished third (14:28.53 PB); in a race with two more PBs in the field. For Chebet 2nd DL overall win.
3000m steeple: Olympic champion Yavi could not keep up in the finish with Cherotich, who got a big win and premiere DL title in 9:02.36 (to 9:02.87).
100m hurdles: Clear victory for Camacho-Quinn in 12.38 (0.4), who finally added the DL title to her achievements, ahead of Visser (12.54).
400m hurdles: Fourth consecutive DL trophy for Bol in 52.45, Cockrell by a large margin second (53.71).
Pole vault: Kennedy cleared 488 on her first attempt and tried at 495 (would be AR), while Morris finished second ahead of Newman and Caudery, all clearing 480. Second DL win for Kennedy.
Long jump: Premiere DL title for Iapichino with 680 (0.0) over Nichols with 668 (0.0).
Javelin: Vilagoš took the lead from Kitaguchi in the final series with 65.23, but the Olympic champion responded with her final throw and a season-best of 66.13, moving to third in a season list, and defeated the DL title.
Men
100m (non-DL): Omanyala in 10.07 (0.0) clearly.
200m: Bednarek with impressive 19.67 (0.7) in cold weather and successful Olympic re-match against Tebogo (19.80). 2nd overall DL win for him.
400m hurdles: dos Santos in 47.93 over Samba (48.20). Second DL overall win for the Brazilian.
800m: Wanyonyi, from the fourth position at the start of the home straight, defeated his DL title in 1:42.70 ahead of Sedjati (1:42.86) and Arop (1:43.25). His second DL final win.
High jump: Third DL title for Tamberi, who cleared 234 on the third attempt (and retired), avoiding a jumping-off with second Doroshchuk (231 =PB).
Triple jump: Pichardo won his third DL title with 17.33 (0.4) over Hess with 17.20 (0.3).
Shot put: Fabbri shocked his competitors with a massive first throw and MR of 22.98, improving his own Italian record by 3cm, and won his first DL title even though he didn’t add another 22m attempt after that. Olympic champion Crouser was attacking him, showing five 22m throws, but 22.79 was insufficient.
Javelin throw: Peters was in the lead from the beginning with 87.87 and maintained a 1-cm victory from Chopra (87.86). His first DL win.
