Pole vault superstar Mondo Duplantis and Australian discus thrower Matthew Denny both took down meeting records at the Allianz Memorial van Damme in Brussels to highlight the first day of Wanda Diamond League Final action on Friday (13).
Other notable performances came from Ethiopia’s Berihu Aregawi, who clocked one of the fastest 5000m performances in history, and Kenya’s Amos Serem, who ended Soufiane El Bakkali’s three-year winning streak in the steeplechase.
Duplantis, who set a world record of 6.25m to win Olympic gold in Paris and then increased that to 6.26m in Silesia last month, kept his jumping to a minimum this evening, no doubt due to the chilly conditions. Yet even a reserved performance was enough to secure a fourth successive Diamond Trophy for the Swede.
He opened with 5.62m and didn’t vault again until the bar was at 5.92m, once again going clear on his first try. No other vaulter managed to clear that height successfully, so Duplantis then raised the bar to 6.11m, one centimetre higher than the meeting record he set last year.
With what was his third jump of the night, the Swede sailed cleanly over 6.11m to defend his title.
While Duplantis broke one of the youngest meeting records, Denny took down one of the oldest as he also defended the Diamond League title he sensationally won in Eugene last season.
The Olympic bronze medallist sent his discus out to 69.96m in the first round, adding two centimetres to the meeting record set by Imrich Bugar in 1984. His throw stood up as the best of the competition, as world record-holder Mykolas Alekna finished second with 68.86m.
Following runner-up finishes in two high-profile races last month, Aregawi finally achieved his first track victory of 2024 by winning the 5000m in 12:43.66. His time was just a few seconds shy of the meeting record, but still ranks as the 18th fastest performance in history and came in a race where four men finished inside 12:50.
Once the pacemakers had dropped out, Yomif Kejelcha led the field through 3000m in 7:42.07 but he still had compatriots Aregawi and Hagos Gebrhiwet, the second-fastest man in history, for company.
Aregawi – who also won the 5000m Diamond League title in 2022 – this time proved to have the superior kick as he won in 12:43.66. Gebrhiwet was second in 12:44.25, ahead of Telahun Haile Bekele (12:45.63) and Kenya’s Nicholas Kipkorir (12:49.59).
When it came to the business end of the men’s 3000m steeplechase, Morocco’s Soufiane El Bakkali – who hasn’t lost a race in the discipline since September 2021 – this time had no response to Amos Serem. The Kenyan strode ahead to win in 8:06.90 to El Bakkali’s 8:08.60.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen bounced back from his defeat in Zurich to defend his 1500m title here in 3:30.37, beating Olympic champion Cole Hocker and Zurich winner Yared Nuguse.
Ingebrigtsen produced his usual dominant last-lap display to win in 3:30.37. This time it was 2019 world champion Timothy Cheruiyot who was his closest challenger, the Kenyan taking second in 3:30.93, 0.01 ahead of Hocker as Nuguse was sixth.
Mary Moraa also ended her season on a high, regaining the Diamond Trophy she last won in 2022. The world 800m champion produced a season’s best of 1:56.56 to win over two laps from Olympic 1500m bronze medallist Georgia Bell (1:57.50).
