Paris (France) (AFP) - The 2026 Diamond League closes on Friday and Saturday with the finals stage in Brussels, where figures such as the pole vaulter Armand Duplantis, the middle distance runner Audrey Werro or the hurdler Alison Dos Santos are not only aiming for the trophy with the precious stone but even the world record.

First modification: 09/03/2026 - 12:29

In the last event in Zurich, the Brazilian Dos Santos in the 400 meters hurdles (45.80) and the American Masai Russell in the 100 meters hurdles (12.09) won the spotlight with two world records, which show that they reach this final stretch of the season at the peak of their form, like many other stars.

This Belgian conclave of the Diamond League finals will be just one week before the first edition of the Ultimate Championships, the new competition launched by World Athletics and which will bring together the athletics elite in Budapest (September 11-13).

Duplantis, mission 6.32 m

Duplantis is precisely one of the faces of that competition in the Hungarian capital, to the point that one of his songs, "Gold", was chosen as the event's anthem.

But before the American-raised Swede travels to Hungary, winning the Diamond League seems like an obligation for him.

As always when he is with the pole on the track, the possibility of a world record hangs over the stadium: he has achieved it fifteen times, raising his own ceiling little by little, until it is 6.31 meters since March.

Defeated in one of the stages of this Diamond League, in June in Stockholm, he cannot however relax under the pressure of the Greek Emmanouil Karalis, who jumped 6.20 meters last week in Zurich.

Werro is getting closer

The Swiss Audrey Werro, for her part, has been one of the sensations of the season with her exhibitions in the 800 meters, where she is shaking the oldest record in athletics.

The mark of 1:53.28 that the Czech Jarmila Kratochvilova achieved in 1983 has still stood since then, but Werro has raised expectations of climbing a wall that several generations have crashed on.

He has run under 1:54 three times this year, most recently last week in Zurich with 1:53.70, his personal best.

"With this mentality, the world record will fall one day, but I can't say when," he said then.

The great year of the fences

The hurdles have had an impressive year and the world records of Alison Dos Santos in the 400 meters of this discipline and Masai Russell in the 100 meters last week in Switzerland are proof of this.

If Russell's record was a real possibility, Dos Santos' record surprised many as the Brazilian star suddenly improved his personal best by almost half a second.

"I've been in excellent shape all season, I'm fast, I'm strong," he celebrated after his feat last Thursday.

In the Diamond League, Alison Dos Santos was crowned champion of the season twice (2022 and 2024), and will be the clear favorite for a third crown, especially in the absence of the Norwegian Karsten Warholm, who did not reach an agreement with the organizers of the Brussels meeting.

In the Belgian capital, the man who broke the world record in June, the young American Ja'Kobe Tharp, will be in the 110 meter hurdles.

A constellation of stars

As these are the finals of the main athletics meeting circuit, the list of glittering stars will be long along with the famous Atomium.

The Jamaican Oblique Seville (100 m), the Saint Lucian Julien Alfred (200 m), the Kenyan Emmanuel Wanyonyi (800 m) and the Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen (1,500 m) will be some of the most notable names.

Among the Latin American representatives, beyond Alison Dos Santos, the options for victory seem very clear in the women's 400 meters, with the Dominican Marileidy Paulino, well above the rest, and in the women's triple jump, with the Cubans Leyanis Pérez and Davisleydi Velazco among the great candidates for the trophy.

© 2026 AFP

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