The first 16 Diamond League champions were crowned at the Wanda Diamond League Final in Brussels on Friday night on a dramatic first night of action book-ended by two series records.
US shot putter Chase Jackson began the evening with a Diamond League record of 21.14m in the women’s shot put, winning her third Diamond Trophy.
Around two hours later, Botswana’s Busang Collen Kebinatshipi also set a new series record with 43.40 in the men’s 400m, winning his first ever title.
Jackson had only just joined the 21-metre club a few days earlier with a North American record of 21.02m in Berlin but she made light work of that mark as she set another lifetime best to dominate the competition.
Jackson, one of only two women in 14 years to surpass the 21-metre mark, extended her area record to 21.14m to win by half a metre from Canada’s Sarah Mitton, with former world leader Jessica Schilder, who threw 21.09m in May, placing third.
Kebinatshipi broke the Diamond League record for the third time this season, his winning time of 43.40 eclipsing his previous records set in Paris and Monaco and moving him to joint fifth on the world all-time list. Trinidad and Tobago’s Jereem Richards was second in 43.68, improving his own national record that had been set when securing world silver behind Kebinatshipi in Tokyo last year.
Alfred and Karalis impress
Among the other champions crowned on Friday were Julien Alfred, Oblique Seville, Manolo Karalis and Emmanuel Wanyonyi.
Julien Alfred who continued her unbeaten streak in the 200m. The only woman under 22 seconds in the race, she ran 21.79 (0.1m/s) to clinch her third Diamond League title in three years and her first in the 200m. As the Olympic 100m champion, Alfred had already automatically qualified for the shorter sprint at the Ultimate Championship but now, as the Diamond League champion, she has a place in the 200m too, should she choose to accept it.
Emmanouil Karalis paid tribute to the number of vocal Greek fans inside the King Baudouin Stadium in the Belgian capital as he produced a meeting record clearance of 6.12m to win the pole vault.
There was an early evening disappointment when his great rival Mondo Duplantis pulled out as a precaution just moments before the night’s action commenced, telling the crowd at the Allianz Memorial Van Damme that he had failed to shake off some tightness in his leg.
In his absence, his closest challenger in 2026, Karalis, dominated the competition. His 5.92m was enough to beat the rest of the field and then he sailed cleared at 6.12m on his third attempt to add a centimetre to a meeting record held by Duplantis. Sondre Guttormsen finished second and Kurtis Marschall third.
One of the rising stars of middle-distance running, Cameron Myers, timed his sprint to the line to win the 1500m by four hundredths of a second ahead of of Phanuel Koech, a year younger than Myers at 19. Ethan Strand was third. Jakob Ingebrigtsen led out the field until the home straight when he was swallowed by the chasing pack to finish in fifth place.
Wanyonyi wins fourth Diamond League title
Emmanuel Wanyonyi was just 0.04 off his season’s best set in Zurich last week as he turned the 800m into a race against the clock once again for his fourth consecutive Diamond League title, won in 1:41.80.
It only seems a matter of time before the Kenyan breaks the world record set by his compatriot David Rudisha back at the London 2012 Olympics. Wanyonyi’s closest challenger, Djamel Sedjati of Algeria, was nearly a second back while France’s Yanis Meziane smashed his personal best with 1:42.87 for third.
There was a US one-two-three in the 110m hurdles as world record-holder Ja’Kobe Tharp took the win. The 20-year-old had a relatively slow start but kept his cool to cross the line first in 13.03. Jamal Britt took second ahead of Trey Cunningham as world champion Cordell Tinch slapped his leg in frustration after he clattered the final hurdle and fell to the floor in a dramatic finale.
World champion Oblique Seville eclipsed many of the world’s best sprinters to win the 100m in 9.90 (0.1m/s). Christian Coleman got off to a great start but couldn’t maintain that speed as he was swallowed up by the rest of the field to finish sixth. Instead, Seville’s closest challenger was Emmanuel Eseme, who was 0.03 behind the Jamaican, with Kayinsola Ajayi third.
USA’s Anna Cockrell was the first Diamond League winner of the night, the world leader setting off quickly and rapidly catching Emma Zapletalová in the 400m hurdles – 53.01 to 53.10. Zapletalová, a five-time Diamond League race winner in 2026, valiantly clawed back much of the deficit but it was not sufficient to get past as Paulien Couckuyt set a Belgian record to round off the top three.
As she had been in Zurich, Faith Cherotich was again a class apart in the 3000m steeplechase, pulling clear in the home straight ahead of fellow Kenyan Doris Lemngole and Winfred Yavi of Bahrain for a meeting record of 8:51.61.
And in the women’s 5000m, Freweyni Hailu produced an electric late burst to lead home an Ethiopian one-two-three in 14:35.20 ahead of Likina Amebaw and Senayet Getachew.
Gayle turns tables on Tentoglou
There was a switch of the one-two from Zurich as Tajay Gayle got the better of Miltiadis Tentoglou in the men’s long jump. Jamaican Gayle left it until the final round, though, for a winning leap of 8.46m, six centimetres farther than Tentoglou with Simon Ehammer third.
The unheralded Mateusz Kołodziejski and JuVaughn Harrison both cleared 2.28m but the Pole won the men’s high jump on countback with Oleh Doroshchuk and Gianmarco Tamberi sharing third after their clearances of 2.25m.
In the women’s triple jump, none of the field managed to reach the 15-metre mark but Senegal’s Saly Sarr took the win, her best of 14.96m beating Leyanis Pérez Hernández, the Diamond League champion for the past two years, into second with her fellow Cuban Davisleydi Velazco third.
China’s 2022 world champion Feng Bin took discus victory with her round-four throw of 67.46m. Two-time Olympic champion Valarie Sion was the favourite to dominate but was some way off her best of 2026, waiting until her final throw for her best of the night – 66.92m – to finish second.
In the men’s event Kristjan Ceh produced a meeting record of 71.29m to beat world record-holder Mykolas Alekna who also surpassed the 70-metre mark. Roje Stona was third.
Matt Majendie for World Athletics
