Autumn has arrived in Belgium as both evenings of competition in Brussels saw temperatures below 60 degrees Fahrenheit, a good range for fast distance running but far from ideal sprinting, jumping, or throwing conditions. After sweating it out across Europe all summer, the 5000m runners finally had the prime end of the forecast, which made for some fast winning times (12:43.66 for Berihu Aregawi and 14:09.82 for Beatrice Chebet). But the chill in the air meant that we didn’t see any record-breaking performances in the shorter events – instead, what we got were some fascinating remixes on the usual pecking order.

The fastest entrant by season’s best failed to win the men’s 100m, 200m, 400m, and 110H, with the sole exception being Alison dos Santos in the 400m hurdles. The women were a little more consistent, as Marileidy Paulino (400m), Brittany Brown (200m), and Femke Bol (400H) entered with the top time in their respective fields and delivered, but the meet overall certainly did not play out like a rerun of Paris. The biggest surprise of the meet was probably Brit Charlie Dobson’s victory in the men’s 400m. Pre-race favorite Matthew Hudson-Smith pulled up early with an injury in the first 200 meters, but Dobson still had to kick down the likes of Vernon Norwood, Kirani James, and Muzala Samukonga to claim the Diamond League title in 44.49.

Caribbean nations sweep 100m crowns.

Friday night’s showcase of both the men’s and women’s 100m finals featured plenty of great storylines, and the athletes came through with some strong performances given the conditions.

The men’s race was without Noah Lyles and Kishane Thompson, the top two finishers in Paris, but the combination of Fred Kerley, Christian Coleman, and Ackeem Blake made for a strong, even matchup. Coleman got out to his stereotypical strong start, but Blake, the 60m bronze medalist from Glasgow behind Coleman and Lyles, was hot on his heels through the first half of the race. Once they reached the midway mark, the young Jamaican was able to find a gear that Coleman just couldn’t quite find on that day, eventually taking the win in 9.93. Kerley closed just as well, if not better, than Blake, but the hole he found himself in early on was too great to dig himself out of. 9.93 equals the fourth-fastest time of Blake’s career, and the fact that he was the only man in a field this talented to break 10 on the day means this could have been significantly quicker in slightly better weather.

On the women’s side, we did get a re-rematch of the Olympic gold and silver medalists, but the second post-Paris matchup of Julien Alfred and Sha’Carri Richardson didn’t live up to the billing. Alfred got out like the 60m World champion she is, taking the lead early on and never relinquishing it. Richardson, meanwhile, couldn’t reach the top speed we’ve gotten accustomed to seeing from her, and she appeared to shut it down early seeing she was out of the running for the win. Alfred took this one in 10.88, moving to 3-3 against Richardson in finals, and Dina Asher-Smith ran 10.92 for second, capping off a very strong finish to her season after missing the 100m final in Paris. Richardson cruised through the line in 11.23, finishing eighth and withdrew from the 200m final the next day.

Sydney impresses on her mostly-solo stage.

First things first: Yes, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone’s winning time in the invitational 400m was faster than Marileidy Paulino’s winning time in the Diamond League 400m final. No, that is not any reason to discredit Paulino’s win. Obviously it would have been awesome to see them go head-to-head because neither one of them was really pushed over the closing stages of their respective races. With that out of the way, SML ran a really fast 400m Friday night. In a fairly light field, she won by nearly a second-and-a-half and crossed the line in 49.11 (for reference, Paulino ran 49.45). Now, she was chasing a PB and American record, so the time may have been a slight disappointment, but this was still an incredibly impressive race.

McLaughlin-Levrone came back the next day for an invitational 200m, once again targeting a time below her 22.07 PB. The weather wasn’t much better on Saturday, and neither was the challenge from her fellow racers, and she ended up taking a comfortable win in 22.40. Unlike the 400m, this time wouldn’t have won the Diamond League final, as Brittany Brown took that trophy home about 25 minutes later in 22.20, but it’s still a more than respectable time. And for all the criticism McLaughlin-Levrone and coach Bobby Kersee face for their racing schedule, it’s worth noting that these were Sydney’s 10th and 11th races (excluding heats) of a season that began on April 20th and ended on September 14th.

Letsile Tebogo is not unbeatable yet.

Since his Olympic 200m gold, Letsile Tebogo has looked head and shoulders above every other sprinter in the world, in races from 100m up to the 4x400m. He took wins at each of the four post-Olympic Diamond Leagues (three 200m races, one 100m) and looked set to secure the Diamond League title over his signature distance in Brussels.

The first half of this race played out just like we’ve seen in some other races on the circuit, where Tebogo was trailing Kenny Bednarek at the halfway point. But whether it was the colder temperatures, the fatigue of a long season catching up to him (in his 31st race of 2024), or simply Bednarek maintaining his speed in the closing stages better, the Olympic champ couldn’t muster that same finish this time, losing only his second 200m of the year. Bednarek came through for the win in an impressive 19.67, while Tebogo settled for second in 19.80.

Now that we can look ahead to 2025, Tebogo’s future is maybe the brightest and the most intriguing in the sport. He’s 21 years old, and already a two-time Olympic and World Championship medalist. He is truly world-class all the way from 100m to 400m and has expressed interest in running a wide range of events in the future. The schedule for next year’s World Championships unfortunately negates the possibility of a 200m-400m double, which could be where Tebogo would excel most, but he’ll still head to Tokyo as the reigning World silver medalist over 100m, so it’s not the end of the world for him that he may be forced into the 100m-200m double again. As for Bednarek, he’ll be heading into next year coming off the best season of his life and he seems to only be getting better and better. His signing with Grand Slam Track means he’ll have at least eight highly competitive “regular season” races locked in for 2025, which is something that should excite any sprints fan.

Ryan Crouser simply cannot catch a break.

It may be insane to feel bad for the greatest shot putter to ever live, simply because he only has one Diamond League trophy instead of three or four. But man, you’ve gotta feel for Ryan Crouser sometimes.

Each of the last three years, the world record holder and three-time Olympic champion has finished runner-up at the Diamond League final, just missing out on a crisp $30,000 simply because one of his competitors decided to have one of the best throws in history. This trend started in Zurich in 2022, where Joe Kovacs threw a 32cm PB and what was then the third-farthest throw in history to upset the newly-minted World champion, who “only” managed 22.74m on the day. Last year, on Crouser’s home turf at the Pre Classic, Kovacs once again edged out his friend and rival, but this finish was much closer at 22.93m to 22.91m.

And that brings us to Brussels, where Italian Leonardo Fabbri finally regained his early-season form and wrapped up the competition on his very first throw, where he secured a new PB of 22.98m, inching (or centimetering) closer and closer to 23m. Crouser put up a great fight, recording the next five best throws of the day with a best of 22.79m, but there was simply no catching Fabbri.

Does this really matter that much? Unless you’re Ryan Crouser’s wallet, the answer is no. Crouser picked up the global title each of the last three years, and the Diamond League trophy would’ve just icing on an enormous cake. But it’s an interesting trend, particularly because Crouser’s only fallen short due to historic performances from his rivals. The marks that have robbed Crouser of Diamond League glory the last three years are the fifth- (2022), 15th-, and T-18th-best performances in history. If you take out performances from Crouser himself, they become the best and the sixth- and the T-eighth-best marks ever.

Both Diamond League 1500m champs extend their streaks.

Last year, one of the biggest surprises of post-Worlds racing was 1500m GOAT Faith Kipyegon picking up a rare loss (albeit in the brand-new World Road Running Championship mile). But while Kipyegon settled for silver in the 5000m in Paris, the 30-year-old Kenyan has not lost a 1500m on the track yet this decade – and that didn’t change this weekend. Up-and-coming Ethiopian Diribe Welteji, who’s put together a strong season of her own that included three DL victories and a fourth-place finish in Paris, gave the Olympic champ a solid fight through about 1400 meters of the race, but no one in the world has figured out a way to muster a better final sprint than Kipyegon, who took the win in a meet record 3:54.75.

Watching Faith Kipyegon utterly dominate the 1500m has taken on a bit of a Groundhog Day effect (the 3:54.75 was both her fifth win of 2024 and her slowest final time this year), but at a certain point we’ve got to start realizing just how insane her streak is becoming. Not only is Kipyegon the fastest ever, but she’s consistent on a level that is pretty much unprecedented in the 1500m, even for past world record holders and Olympic champions.

The men’s 1500m is, on the surface, much more interesting because of its uncertainty, but at the end of the day Jakob Ingebrigtsen still picked up his third straight Diamond League mile/1500m title. This particular race was slightly notable in that Ingebrigtsen hung behind American Yared Nuguse until 500 meters remained and then nearly got taken out by pacer Boaz Kiprugut when he tried to pass. Once Ingebrigtsen hit the front with a lap to go, Nuguse got tangled up in a collision of his own and, while managing to stay on his feet, got shuffled out of contention for the win and would ultimately finish sixth. But the Norwegian middle-distance maestro was rewarded for his patience with a 54.28 final lap, good enough to withstand attacks from Timothy Cheruiyot and Cole Hocker and finish the season on a high note.

Well, sort of – Ingebrigtsen made the trip from Brussels to Copenhagen Sunday to make his half marathon debut and learned the hard way that 13 miles of racing on tired legs doesn’t come easy. Jakob came through 10km with the leaders in 27:27, a Norwegian road record, but had to stop and walk multiple times over the second half of the race and only crossed the finish line in a comparatively pedestrian 63:13, good for 34th place in the deep field. Probably best to just focus on the Diamond League win and what was surely a hefty appearance fee just for showing up and get ready to relax in the postseason.

Jasmine Camacho-Quinn is the queen of consistency.

For the better part of the last three years, the 100m hurdles has been one of the true treasures of the pro circuit due to a trio of factors: the best athletes in the world all hitting their peaks at the same time, an incredibly top-heavy glut of talent, and all the biggest names racing each other frequently.

Even without Olympic champ Masai Russell, who was busy being feted by 60,000 of her friends at the Kentucky-Georgia game, the Diamond League final still featured the Olympic silver and bronze medalists, the reigning World champion, and the 2024 world leader. But that was no problem for Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, who grabbed a lead over the fourth hurdle and never let it go, dominating the second half of the race and winning in 12.38. Camacho-Quinn may only have finished third in Paris, but she also won 12 of her 16 races this year and never finished lower than fourth, an incredible display of consistency in a highly-variable event. She’s also finished off her years with a season’s best between 12.26 and 12.35 each of the last four seasons, and at 28 years old, she’s not going anywhere any time soon.

Olympic steeplechase champs get upset.

Two of the more shocking results of the weekend came in the steeplechase races, where Amos Serem and Faith Cherotich both scored big wins for Kenya in massive upsets of Olympic champions.

The men’s race looked like so many others over the last four years for the first seven laps. Aside from the pacers, Serem led this race the whole way through, while Soufiane El Bakkali was biding his time in the middle of the pack. Just before the bell lap, El Bakkali began to make his move, navigating his way from sixth to second by the time he reached the first barrier on the last lap. He got right up on Serem’s shoulder, but the 22-year-old Kenyan was having absolutely none of it this time. As soon as he felt his Moroccan rival closing, he found a burst that opened up a gap of a couple meters on the two-time Olympic champion. El Bakkali was never able to reel Serem back in, as he suffered his first loss in a steeplechase final since the Diamond League Final in Zurich three years ago. Serem’s win in 8:06.90 is some nice redemption from a 14th-place finish in Paris, not to mention a nice payday.

Winfred Yavi doesn’t necessarily have the same air of unbeatability around her as El Bakkali does, but her last two races before Saturday night were an Olympic gold-winning performance in 8:52.76 and the second-fastest time ever of 8:44.39, so her defeat here was a big surprise. It was immediately evident that this would be a three-woman race, as the Olympic podium of Yavi, Peruth Chemutai, and Cherotich went out with a hot early pace that was set for the world record. The pace lights got a bit ahead of them as the race wore on, but they had still set themselves up for a fantastic finish as the leading trio passed the lead back and forth over the final few laps. Cherotich led coming into the final water jump, but Yavi made a strong push on the outside to pass her over the barrier. Cherotich must’ve seen what her compatriot did the night before, because she unleashed a similarly impressive charge coming out of the water pit and held on down the homestraight to take the win in 9:02.36.

Cherotich just turned 20 in July, and she already has a pair of global bronze medals, a Diamond League title, and is the seventh-fastest woman in history. We could be witnessing the arrival of one of the absolute best in the event.

Allman and Duplantis wrap up undefeated seasons.

To put it simply, Valarie Allman and Mondo Duplantis were unparalleled this year. Allman went 11-0 in finals, Duplantis went 15-0. Both successfully defended their Olympic titles, and both claimed their fourth consecutive Diamond League crown. Obviously Duplantis has his three world records this year as a kicker, but in terms of dominance, nobody did it better in the field events than these two. (Tara Davis-Woodhall and Jordan Díaz Fortún also had undefeated Olympic champion years in their events, but they didn’t compete this weekend.)

It was business as usual for Allman this year, as she dominated all over the world throughout the summer, but none of that would matter unless she wrapped up the global title that had eluded her in 2022 and 2023. In Paris, she won the competition on her first legal throw and ended up winning gold by just under 2m. On Friday night she checked off the last box on her to-do list for 2024, winning in Brussels with a mark of 68.47m. It wasn’t the prettiest day for Allman, as her second-best throw was well off her best, but coming out on top when you don’t have your best series is the hallmark of a true champion.

We’ve already written several thousand words this year about how good Mondo Duplantis is, but he’s earned every bit of praise. On a cold night in Brussels, he jumped only three times, but first time clearances at 5.62m, 5.92m and 6.11m were enough to get the job done. The 24-year-old ends the greatest season in pole vault history with the eight best marks on the year and 12 competitions at or over 6m. Mondo’s been the best in the world for four or so years now, but he also gets better every year and he’s widening his gap on everyone else – with no end to his reign in sight.

We bid adieu to an insane Diamond League 800m season.