Diamond League Final
The Van Damme Memorial in Brussels was also the Diamond League final. In 1976, Ivo van Damme, a Belgian athlete, gained two Olympic medals in the 800 and 1500 meters but tragically died in a road accident later that year. 2026 saw the 50th anniversary of his death. As part of the event, there is an annual gala dinner at Brussels Town Hall on the eve of the Allianz Memorial Van Damme. This year three athletes were inducted into the Memorial’s Hall of Fame: Carl Lewis, Dwight Stones and Mike Boit. They were also driven round the track in vintage cars before the Diamond League program.
The Diamond League final, for which athletes qualify through points acquired throughout the season, seems to have suffered a bit from being held immediately before the World Athletics Ultimate Championships in terms of absent athletes, although, to be fair, there was a good representation of world number 1s – even if some of those seem surprising holders of that accolade. There was a Royal Visit too, with King Philippe, Queen Mathilde and Prince Gabriel in attendance.
The 2-hour Diamond League final program was preceded by a series of youth events – great to give junior athletes an opportunity to be part of the event. The main program, as tradition demands, started with a 400m hurdles (women’s) and wove its way through throwing and jumping, not forgetting pole vault, to races from 100 to 5000m.
The first race produced a shock when Emma Zapletova, a 2026 Diamond League winner at Doha, Rabat, Oslo, Rome and Lausanne, was beaten into second place by Anna Cockrell (53.02/53.10).
The men’s 100m was won by Oblique Seville in 9,90 with four men running sub-10 and 10.03 only getting 7th place. There was confusion when the starter called a false start, and Trayvon Bromell was shown on the scoreboard as DQ. His start-time was then adjusted to a legal 0.115, Perhaps unnerved he finished 8th in 10.07.
There was also drama in the men’s 110m hurdles. It was a hotly anticipated race with 4 athletes in the race who had gone sub-13 this year. A false start, thankfully, resulted only in a green card, so, as Geoff Wightman likes to tell spectators, it means athletes can work in the USA while continuing the race. Ja’Kobe Tharp, world record holder won in 13.03.
The most exciting winner was Emmanouil Karalis in the pole vault with 6.12. He cleared the bar and ran round the track to celebrate. A disappointment for the crowd was that Mondo Duplantis did not start because of a recurrence of a leg problem that has troubled him in the latter half of this season.
Security is tight at the Diamond League final. Your correspondent was asked to show his accreditation before being allowed to go to the men’s room.
