This Friday and Saturday, the world’s best athletes will battle it out in Brussels for the first global title of the season at the 2026 Wanda Diamond League Final.
Here are five athletes to keep an eye on during the second day of action on Saturday.
Audrey Werro: women’s 800m
Last year’s Diamond League Final was a watershed moment for Audrey Werro, as she won her first global title and broke the Swiss record in front of her home crowd in Zurich. A year on, she is now the undisputed world number one after a jaw-dropping season which has seen her break the Diamond League record on three separate occasions and win all five of her races in the series so far. Her most recent exploits in Zurich saw her come within half a second of Jarmila Kratochvílová’s world record, and few no doubt that Werro has what it takes to surpass that mark at some point in the near future.
Alison Dos Santos: men’s 400m hurdles
If Werro’s world record now seems only a matter of time, Alison Dos Santos caught the athletics world completely off guard when he stormed to a world record of 45.80 in the men’s 400m hurdles in Zurich. Dos Santos had been in scintillating form all season, notching up multiple victories against long-time Norwegian rival Karsten Warholm. In Zurich, he topped it all by shaving a full 0.14 seconds off Warholm’s previous world record from 2021 and becoming the fastest man in history. If he wasn’t already, the Brazilian is now the standalone favourite to win what would be a third Diamond League title in five years on Saturday.
Masai Russell: women’s 100m hurdles
Dos Santos wasn’t the only hurdler to break a world record in Zurich, with the USA’s Masai Russell following suit shortly after him with 12.09 in the women’s 100m hurdles. Russell’s record had been on the cards for months after she stormed to 12.14 in Xiamen early in the season and notched up an incredible string of record-breaking wins in the Diamond League. Russell has now broken a meeting record in all six of her Diamond League races this year, and will hope to make it a clean sweep when she attack’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn’s current Brussels record of 12.27 on Saturday. A win would also see Russell add a first ever Diamond Trophy to her growing list of accolades, as she lines up in the Diamond League Final for the first time in her career.
Hana Moll: women’s pole vault
Hana Moll has been one of the late bloomers of this Diamond League season, securing qualification to the final only in the last few weeks with back-to-back wins in Lausanne. At 21, the US pole vaulter is anything but a late bloomer in the grander scheme of things, however, and is fast making a name for herself as the next big thing in the women’s pole vault. Her win in Lausanne two weeks ago was her first ever in the Diamond League, while her 4.90m in Zurich was a new personal best which made her the fourth-highest vaulter in Diamond League history, leapfrogging four-time series champion Katerina Stefanidi. Though Katie Moon, Angelica Moser and co. will still take some beating on Saturday, Moll can still harbour hopes of a first title in Belgium.
Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage: men’s javelin
While Moll would be the 58th American athlete to win a Diamond Trophy if she wins on Saturday, Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage is hoping to become his country’s first ever Diamond League champion when he lines up in the men’s javelin. The Sri Lankan star has enjoyed a breakthrough year this season, with four wins from his five Diamond League appearances. Though he finished second on his series debut in Rabat, he would go on to throw beyond 92 metres in both Rome and Zurich, marching into the top ten throwers of all time and establishing himself firmly as the title favourite for 2026.
