Brussels

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 – Emmanuel Wanyonyi (800 metres), Faith Kipyegon (1,500m) and Beatrice Chebet (5,000m, 10,000m) – on the start list.

This weekend’s “MVD” meet will end a season that lasted six months going across 14 cities and four different continents.

On Friday and Saturday, the 32 Wanda Diamond League champions of 2024 will be crowned at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels with Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis, Kipyegon and Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen out to defend their titles in the Belgian capital.

Meanwhile, the likes of Letsile Tebogo, Julien Alfred and Sha'Carri Richardson are all hoping to claim a first ever Diamond League title with Friday's action will start at 7.11pm local time (8.11pm Kenyan time) with the women's discus and the main two-hour broadcast window will begin at 8pm local time (9pm Kenyan time) with the women's 400m.

On Saturday, the Diamond League programme kicks off at 6.52pm local time (7.52pm Kenyan time) with the women's javelin and the main two-hour broadcast window will begin at 8pm local time (9pm Kenyan time) with the men's 400m hurdles.

Ahead of the action on Friday, Chebet and Africa 100m champion and record holder Ferdinand Omanyala were received at the Kenyan Embassy at Churchillaan on Avenue Winston Churchill in Brussels by Ambassador Bitange Ndemo, his deputy Daniel Cheruiyot and the mission’s staff who all paid glowing tribute to the athletes for the role they play in marketing Kenya globally.

“You do a lot to market the country and you are our best ambassadors. As a mission, we shall do whatever is necessary to assist you whenever you travel these sides for competitions,” Ndemo said at the Kenyan embassy.

Omanyala and Chebet were grateful for the reception and sought ways of partnering with various parties in Europe to promote sport, with Omanyala keep on using the Ferdinand Omanyala Foundation to groom more sprinters back home in Kenya.

“I hate it when I go for competitions in Kenya and it’s always Omanyala who will win… I want the day to come when any of the eight sprinters on the start line have a chance,” the Commonwealth champion said.

“I don’t want to see a lull before the next big sprinter is discovered. Through the foundation, we should develop more sprinters.”

Soft-spoken Chebet, also the 10,000m world record holder, thanked Ambassador Ndemo and his staff for the reception and appreciation of the athletes.

“It’s a great honour to be here, and we thank you so much for appreciating us and welcoming us. We look forward to seeing you cheer us up at the stadium,” said Chebet who was accompanied by Athletics Kenya official Barnaba Korir.

Korir implored the embassy and Kenyan missions abroad to embrace the athletes whenever they competed in foreign cities and to seek incentives to catapult the lives of athletes upwards, including pushing for tax treaties where none exist and where athletes suffer double taxation.

“It’s unfortunate that in some jurisdictions our athletes suffer double taxation as their prize money is taxed in the country of competition and again also back home by the Kenya Revenue Authority. This ought to be addressed,” Korir, also the meet director of the Kip Keino Classic Continental Tour meeting in Nairobi said.

Omanyala is in Brussels for the Diamond League Finals celebration but will not be on the start list which features Botswana’s 200m Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo and South African veteran Akani Simbine alongside Americans Christian Coleman and Fred Kerley.

But top-ranked Chebet – with a personal best time of 14 minutes 05.92 seconds over the 12-and-a-half lap race - will feature in her 5,000m specialty at 9.18pm (10.18pm Kenyan time) on Saturday at the King Baudouin Stadium with her main challengers being third, fourth and fifth-ranked Ethiopians Ejgayehu Taye (14:12.98), Tsigie Gebrselama (14:18.76) and Medina Eisa (14:16.54).

This group is expected to orchestrate the pace with organisers setting the wavelights at a pace of 2:52.00 and 8:35.00 across 1,000m and 3,000m for a projected finishing time of 14:18.89.

Kerbside lights aside, Americans Eleanor Fulton and Taylor Werner are the designated human pacemakers with their target being to push for a modest 14:30.00.

In the women’s 800m from 9.40pm, local time, or 10.40pm Kenyan time, Benin’s pacer Noelie Yarigo has been set at 46.50 for 400m to pull the field that includes Kenya’s world champion and Olympic bronze medalist Mary Moraa past the meet record of 1:55.16.

Besides Moraa, the only other Olympic finalist from Paris is South Africa’s Prudence Sekgodiso who is ranked fourth in the world this season.

The rains in Brussels on Friday make it difficult to challenge a world record with Chebet and co. also battling at the tail-end of a tough Olympic season.

Friday’s main action at the Allianz Memorial Van Damme Diamond League Final meeting at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels (Local times; +1 for East African time):

8:04pm: Women’s 400m

8:17pm: Men’s 100m

8:28pm: Men’s 110m hurdles

8:29pm: Women’s high jump

8:35pm: Men’s Discus Throw

8:37pm: Men’s 5,000m

8:52pm: Women’s triple jump

9:01pm: Women’s 100m

9:09pm: Men’s 3,000m steeplechase

9:29pm: Men’s 1,500m

9:40pm: Women’s 800m

9:52pm: Men’s 400m