by Alfonz Juck
BRUSSELS (BEL, Sep 2): Athletes showed few signs of a long season in the penultimate Diamond League of the year, the 46th Allianz Memorial Van Damme. Some 35,000 spectators saw 3 World leading marks and 3 meeting records (in total, 4 with Kovacs shot). Also, 1 area record and 11 national records in excellent summer evening. Legends present in the stadium were awarded (Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Gaston Roelants, Paul Tergat, Daniel Komen), and a traditional concert (Jeremie Makiese and Laura Tesoro) and fireworks at the end was also not missing. Kara Winger, Jacob Krop, Yaroslava Mahuchikh set world leads, and Sebastian Sawe clocked a world best for 15 000 m. The other theme was shocks as there were surprise defeats for Armand Duplantis, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Laura Muir and Emmanuel Korir.
Short reviews
200m: Erriyon Knighton finished strongly to post a winning 20.07 into 2.9m/s wind. Alexander Ogando (20.18) and Aaron Brown (20.22) followed.
400m (non-DL): Kevin Borlee, with 45.72, won over Jonathan and Dylan, who were fourth and fifth. In-between Ireland´s O´Donnell as second 45.78.
800m: World 800m champion beat world 1500m champion as Jake Wightman went to fourth on the 2022 list with a PB 1:43.65 (also Scottish record) over Olympic winner Emmanuel Korir (1:44.12) in third, separated by Djamel Sedjati (1:44.12). Home Crestan 1:44.24 PB.
5000m: Jason Krop went to sixth on the world all-time list with a world lead of 12:45.71, holding off Grant Fisher, who set a North American record of 12:46.96. A plethora of further PBs behind included national records for Dominic Lobalu, Andreas Almgren, and Luis Grijalva.
400m hurdles: It was close, but Alison dos Santos remains unbeaten this year, this time in 47.54 (missed MR by 0.03) as Khalifah Rosser was surprising with him 47.88. Watrin, in fourth, clocked a Belgian record 48.66.
Pole vault: The first defeat in 20 finals and 12 months for Mondo Duplantis, who cleared a best of 5.81m but had three failures at 5.91m, where Ernest Obiena succeeded in his third attempt.
Triple jump: Lazaro Martinez was just a centimeter short of his PB with 17.49m in the second round. He retired after two rounds but Hugues Fabrice Zango was closest to him with 17.40m.
1 Hour (non-DL): Sebastian Sawe set a world best for the rarely run 15km of 41:51.07 but was 80m short of the world one-hour record. His 21.250km was a Kenyan record as he finished ahead of Kibiwott Kandie (20.94km). Also, in the 20 000 m with 56:20.55 missed the top mark of Bashir Abdi 56:20.02 also very closely.Women
100m: Shericka Jackson sprang a surprise on Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who suffered her first defeat over 100m in just over a year. Jackson’s time of 10.73 (+0.6) was 0.02 outside best as she won by 0.01. Maria Jose Ta Lou was third with 10.78.
400m: Fiordaliza Cofil went under 50 for the first time with a 49.80 win over Sada Williams (50.15). National records followed for Cynthia Bolingo (50.19) and Mary Moraa (50.67).
1500m: Ciara Mageean took more than five seconds from her PB with an Irish record 3:56.63. The strongly finishing Laura Muir was second with 3:56.86 ahead of Freweyni Hailu (3:56.94) and Diribe Welteji, who was leading into the last lap with some margin (3:57.82)
Steeple: The world record soon looked off the cards, though 18 years old Jackline Chepkoech took more than seven seconds from her PB with 9:02.43 for victory over Werkuha Getachaw (9:03.44) and Winfred Yavi (9:08.03).
100m hurdles: Jasmine Camacho-Quinn won with 12.27 (+0.1) — a meeting record and the equal 11th fastest in history (and her second fastest ever). Next in was Tia Jones, with a PB of 12.38 over Kendra Harrison (12.40).
High jump: After a first-time 2.02m, Yaroslava Mahuchikh went over at the second asking with 2.05m — a world lead, meeting the record of Vlasic equaled and Ukrainian record. She also had three decent attempts at a world record 2.10m. The second was Eleanor Patterson (1.94m).
Long jump (non-DL): Ese Brume won with 6.83m over Quanesha Burks (6.54m), with local top star Nafi Thiam fourth 646.
Javelin: Kara Winger extended what was a narrow lead with 68.11m — a world lead, US record, and meeting record, which moves her to 12th on the world all-time list. Hiruka Kitaguchi was second with 63.45m, and World U20 champion Adriana Vilagos was third in DL debut at 63.00m.
