by Larry EderThe Allianz Van Damme Memorial is another one of iconic meetings in the Diamond League. I have been to the meeting a few times. I always enjoyed the local fans, and their love of their national athletes. One year, they gave the score of World Cup games, and then, the fans got into their athletic meeting.
This year, though, the King and Queen showed up, so the fans were happy campers, and 20,000 of them showed up.
Some exciting performances, and guess what (I know, you get the text)? Here is my list of cool things that happened in King Badouin Stadium.
Francine Nyonsaba takes the 3000m, photo by Diamond League AG
Brussels, what a great host in 2021, why the Van Damme Memorial stood out.
- Brussels gave the discus the respect it deserved, on night 1, with Daniel Stahl and Yamie Perez winning in good competitions.
- Francine Nyonsaba continues to impress. Her wins at 2 miles in Eugene, 3000m in Paris and now, 5000m in Brussels shows that the former 800m runner has found her new distance.
- Christine Mboma, the young Olympic silver medalist at 200m, won in U20 in Nigeria and dominated the field in Brussels, with Sherika Jackson, 21.95 and Dina-Asher Smith in 22.04.
- Sifan Hassan won the mile by seven seconds, in 4:14, the best in 2021! That Sifan holds the women’s WR for the mile, in 4:12, shows just how versatile the young Belgian is!
- Mondo Duplantis cleared 6.05m in Brussels and took 3 good attempts for 6.19m WR! Mondo is ready for a big one.
- Mike Cherry ran 44.03! His super-fast 400m took out some fine competitors. Just how fast can Mike Cherry go? Nice to see Mike Cherry broke the 1998 MR of one Michael Johnson (44.06).
- Stewart McSweyn won the men’s 1,500m in a close battle with Ollie Hore.
- In the Women’s 5000m, former Badger, now On AC Alicia Monson, took only 14:42 to cover 12.5 laps! Alicia is a tough athlete, who can deal with heat and double the distance.
