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.

Kenya’s former world champion Timothy Cheruiyot’s campaign was at sixes and sevens, clashing with a pacemaker and bumping into an opponent to allow Norwegian rival Jakob Ingebrigtsen cruise to victory in the season-ending 1,500 metres race at the Memorial Van Damme in Brussels on Friday night.

The season-ending Allianz Memorial Van Damme will certainly place Brussels on the global map this weekend with African athletes primed to steal the show on the track across the two days of action on Friday and Saturday. And the Kenyan contingent is well represented here, with all gold medallists from Paris....

Letsile Tebogo is on fire. The 21-year-old from Botswana, who won a 200m gold at the Paris Olympic Games and silver with his country on the 4x400m relay, returned to competition five more times since Paris and won in all of his appearances.

For three times, Mondo Duplantis has beaten his own pole vault world record this season. Will the Swedish phenom add a fourth at the 48th edition of the Allianz Memorial Van Damme by raising the bar by another centimetre?

For Femke Bol the Allianz Memorial Van Damme is a meet close to home, where she'll be the favourite to win the closing 400 metres of the Wanda Diamond League final.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen is chasing the overall Wanda Diamond League win in the 1,500 metres on Friday night's Allianz Memorial Van Damme, but he is keeping his tactics close to his chest.

At just 22 years of age, Ukraine’s high jump superstar Yaroslava Mahuchikh is mature way beyond her age. Unbeaten outdoors this season, Mahuchikh bagged Olympic gold in Paris last month, just days after soaring over 2.10 metres for a new world record, again in the French capital, at the Stade Charletey during the Paris Diamond League meeting.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, the queen of the Olympic Games athletics competition will be at the start of the Allianz Memorial Van Damme. Brussels will be her first and only meeting after the Games. On Friday, she will run the 400 metres, and Saturday the 200 metres.

The list of participants for the 48th Allianz Memorial Van Damme, the final of the Wanda Diamond League 2024, is just about complete and looks very impressive. All athletes combined account for 101 medals at the past Olympic and Paralympic Games. Never before has an athletics meeting been so well-attended.