by Larry EderThis is the first story on the 2024 Diamond League finals, for Day 1, in Brussels, which was held on 13 September 2024.
Diamond League final -day 1 highlights
The Diamond League final, the culmination of 14 events, spread over 6 months, with athletes battling to qualify for that final… except that it did not seem that way. One athletics journalist said to me before the program started – “Diamond League final, but who actually cares.” The event seemed an anti-climax in the aftermath of such a brilliant Olympics. The number of Olympic champions who had opted out appeared to confirm that.
Then there was the nonsense of putting on two particular races to have Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone in the program, running in tracksuit pants against a mediocre field. Even the announcement that she was running needed clarification from the Diamond League management the following day to make clear that she was not running in a DL final but in a pre-event race.
Among the Olympic Champions who qualified and accepted their invitation to compete for the Diamond was Mondo Duplantis, who won the pole vault with 5.92 and then cleared 6.11 to give the crowd something to cheer. Similarly, Marileidy Paulino repeated her Olympic triumph, albeit 1.2 seconds slower than in Paris.
Belgian resident Yaroslava Mahuchikh, who had to flee her native Ukraine, won the High Jump on countback from Nicola Olyslagers, with the same athletes taking the top four places in Paris. Valarie Allman won the discus, beating more or less the same field as in Paris.
The men’s 100 meters was won by Ackeem Blake of Jamaica in 9.93 with Christian Coleman second in 10.00 – the times reflected the temperature 55F or 13 C. It should be noted that the top two in the Olympic final, Noah Lyles and Kishane Thompson, were not in Brussels. Fred Kerley, third in Paris, was also third in Brussels.
In the absence of Grant Holloway, Sasha Zhoya – who did not make the 2024 Olympic final – won the 110m hurdles in 13.16 from Lorenzo Simonelli in a rare European 1-2 event traditionally dominated by Americans. The jury must decide if Zhoya counts as European as he was born in Australia, has Zimbabwean citizenship, and is French!
The winner of the 5000 was Berihu Aregawi in 12:43.66 from Hagos Gebrhiwet and Haile Bekele in an Ethiopian 1-2-3. This is becoming a recurring theme, but the Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen is absent, having opted to run the 1500 instead. Jakob won the 1500 in 3:30.37, with Olympic champion Cole Hocker third.
With Keely Hodgkinson having ended her season with an injury, Mary Moraa won the 800m in 1:56.56 in the race in which the top seven all finished in under 2 minutes.
The seemingly unbeatable Miltiadis Tentoglou (8:15) suffered a second post-Olympic defeat to Tajay Gayle (8:28). Sarah Mitton, not in the medals in Paris, won the DL final;
