The last Diamond League contest of the season is set to take place tomorrow, September 4th, at the Memorial Van Damme meet in Brussels. Belgium’s premier track meet will also double as the Diamond League final.

Throughout the season, athletes have racked up placing points at the 14 previous Diamond League meets to earn a spot on the line (or the runway, or the ring) for a shot at first prizes, which range between $30,000 and $60,000, depending on the discipline. This year, results from the Final may also have repercussions later into the fall, as one last shuffle of the world rankings could impact who makes the cut for the World Ultimate Champs in Budapest.

The 100m titles are up for grabs

Neither the men’s nor women’s world leader is lining up in the 100m, as Noah Lyles and Adaejah Hodge are skipping the meet entirely. Melissa Jefferson-Wooden and Julien Alfred have thrilled the Diamond League crowds twice in the past two weeks with close battles, but MJW is likewise taking a pass and Alfred is only contesting the 200m.

On paper, this opens the door for Sha’Carri Richardson to cruise to victory, but she hasn’t looked as sharp in her recent outings as she did winning USAs in July. She’ll face strong competition from Tina Clayton (10.85 SB) and Jonielle Smith (10.89 SB), and perhaps even European champ Amy Hunt could mix things up if the race is won in the 10.9s.

In the men’s race, NCAA champ Kanyinsola Ajayi will look to extend his already long season one more race, but to win he’ll have to take down World champ Oblique Seville, not to mention Trayvon Bromell and Christian Coleman. Ajayi beat Seville in both London and Eugene, but Seville got him back in Silesia, where Ajayi only managed a fourth-place finish. Based on how their respective campaigns are trending, Seville is moving in the right direction at the right time.

How low can Julien Alfred go?

It would be a shock to see anyone but Julien Alfred win the 200m after her stunning 21.51 earlier this season—and the fact that Alfred hasn’t lost a 200m race since the 2024 Olympic final. Anavia Battle and Kayla White are always strong on the circuit, but they’re unlikely to give Alfred the kind of challenge that a Gabby Thomas or a Melissa Jefferson-Wooden could.

Instead, the intrigue will come from how fast Alfred can run out front on her own. Only two women in history have run under 21.50 (Shericka Jackson and world record holder Florence Griffith-Joyner), but if the conditions cooperate and Alfred is still feeling good coming off her lifetime best in the 100m in Zurich, she could become the third.

How low can Paulino and Kebinatshipi go?

Similarly to Alfred in the 200m, the favorites in the men’s and women’s 400ms are heavy, as Marileidy Paulino and Collen Kebinatshipi enter the final undefeated on the circuit this year (Kebinatshipi did finish second in his season opener, a small domestic meet in Botswana). Both also set the Diamond League record earlier this season, and it wouldn’t be crazy to see either runner lower those marks with their co-signature fast-finishing style.

Paulino has faced strong challenges from Aaliyah Butler this year, but Butler’s most recent outing was an eighth-place finish in Silesia in 50.38 so she may not be at her A-game. Nickisha Pryce, Butler’s former NCAA rival, and European champ Henriette Jæger have been running well of late, but neither has broken 49 seconds this year whereas Paulino has run sub-49 in her last six races. Kebinatshipi, on the other hand, will be glad to not see Rai Benjamin’s name on the start line, as that’s the only other guy in the world who’s given him a run for his money this summer.

Werro and Wanyonyi are favorites in the 800m—unless…

Week in and week out, Audrey Werro is looking increasingly unbeatable in the women’s 800m as she stacks up 1:53 runs and inches closer to Jarmila Kratochvílová’s 1:53.28 world record. But at the same time, Femke Broeders-Bol has gotten better and better each time out, too, and now that she’s shown 1:54 speed, it would only take the slightest of miscalculations for Werro to find herself vulnerable in the homestretch. Werro has barely taken a wrong step all year, however (except for that unfortunate fall in the semis at Euros), so it’s hard to imagine she’d make a huge tactical blunder now.

Emmanuel Wanyonyi has not been nearly as consistent as Werro, but he’s looked great in his last two outings at the two Swiss Diamond League meets. The real surprise has been that Djamel Sedjati, not Marco Arop, has been Wanyonyi’s biggest competition of recent. Sedjati is known for his fast finishing kick but Wanyonyi has managed to hold him off in the last two races—maybe third time’s the charm for the Algerian. Arop, for his part, would be a real threat for the win in his mid-season form, but he’s only raced once in the last six weeks and it was just a fourth place, 1:43.18 finish in Lausanne, a full second behind Wanyonyi.

World record holders return in the hurdles

All three hurdlers who broke world records this year will be in Brussels, with varying degrees of favoritism to win the Diamond League final.

With both Karsten Warholm and Rai Benjamin out of the mix, it would be a shock to see anyone but Alison dos Santos take the crown in the 400m hurdles, especially after he took down both Warholm and Warholm’s world record just one week earlier. Masai Russell is probably a slightly lesser favorite in the 100H, if for no other reason than the high hurdles tend to be more variable in general, but she’s undefeated in the event for the year and that doesn’t look like it’ll change any time soon.

The most interesting plotlines come from the 110m hurdles, where Ja’Kobe Tharp is the world record holder thanks to his 12.75 run at NCAAs back in June but his countryman Jamal Britt has been the most consistent winner on the circuit. Throw in reigning World champ Cordell Tinch and it’s highly likely the two-years-running streak of Americans winning 110H DLs continues, but any of the three has a good shot at winning. Tharp is coming off a 13.05 victory in Bellinzona, Switzerland, last weekend, so he’ll have a good deal of confidence heading into his first Diamond League final.

A totally stacked men’s 1500m final

Admitted American middle-distance bias aside, this could be the most interesting event of the whole weekend. With the exceptions of Brits Jake Wightman and Josh Kerr, the field has pretty much everyone you could possibly want, headlined by the last two Olympic champs Cole Hocker and Jakob Ingebrigtsen. The only men to win multiple DL races this season are Yared Nuguse and Cam Myers, both of whom are entered, as well as surprise Silesia victor Ethan Strand and Oslo Dream Mile champ Timothy Cheruiyot.

In all likelihood, one of those six men will leave victorious. The other two names worth mentioning are Phanuel Koech and Jake Heyward, who’ve both been in the mix near the front of the best 1500m races this season but haven’t managed to deliver a signature win yet. But the reality is that all eyes will be on Hocker and Ingebrigtsen.

Generally, you wouldn’t expect the guy who finished fourth and fifth in his last two 1500ms to be in the mix for the win, but as Ingebrigtsen races his way back to top fitness, he can’t be counted out, especially if the pace is fast. Hocker, and now Strand, will probably fare better in a slightly more tactical race, but if it gets too tactical the chaos at the finish could lead to unpredictable outcomes for even the best kickers.

The race could also have significant implications for World Ultimates, as Heyward and Koech are currently on the outside looking in by a few spots but Vince Ciattei is currently occupying the final qualifying spot. The highest finisher amongst Ciattei, Heyward, and Koech would end up in qualifying position, creating an intriguing race-within-a-race.

No Faith Kipyegon leads to a wide-open women’s 1500m final

After Faith Kipyegon shut down her injury-hampered 2026 campaign, the DL title has officially become up for grabs amongst a handful of contenders. Georgia Hunter Bell is coming off a European title and is most credentialed overall, as the reigning World Indoor champ and two-time global medalist, so she’s gotta be considered the favorite, but Birke Haylom has won three DL 1500ms this season and her fellow Ethiopian Tsige Duguma has looked better and better each time out as she’s moved up from the 800m.

Americans will surely be pulling for Nikki Hiltz to persevere in a battle of the kicks, and you have to consider that Jess Hull will always be in the mix keeping the pace honest. It’s also worth noting that Dorcus Ewoi hasn’t won a track race all season but is the reigning World silver medalist coming off a season’s best 3:55.58 in Silesia behind Hull. And the real dark horse may be Klaudia Kazimierska, the former Oregon Duck from Poland who ran a big PB in Silesia just 0.01 seconds back of Ewoi. While Hunter Bell is the favorite and Duguma has serious upside, it’s hard to say any one athlete has this one on lock.

Can an American win the men’s 5000m?

Technically, only one American has won a DL 5000m this season (Grant Fisher in Paris), but Parker Wolfe has won both a 3000m and two mile in Diamond League races, filling the long-distance slots in the program in Zurich and Eugene. Wolfe isn’t racing, but Fisher is, joined by two Americans who’ve shown they can be as good as Wolfe under the right circumstances: Graham Blanks and Nico Young, both of whom have come close but just missed wins on the circuit.

Just as importantly, no one top dog has emerged in the event overall. Only one man, Addison Yihune, has won multiple 5000ms on the circuit this season, and he’s not entered. Birhanu Balew, Dominic Lobalu, and Biniam Mehary have all been a factor in paced races, but really no one in the field is more consistently successful than any of the Americans. Fisher has looked a bit gassed in his recent outings, so the best hope may be Blanks, who’s finished second in two of his last three races. It’s possible, but ultimately it really feels like this race will come down to the best execution on the day, rather than any one athlete being truly superior to the field.

Will the world record get a scare in the women’s steeplechase?

The women’s steeplechase will see something of a last hurrah in Brussels, as the event isn’t part of the World Ultimate Championship’s scaled-down meet program. That means that if we’re going to see a truly eye-popping time, Friday is the day as the Big Three of Faith Cherotich, Peruth Chemutai, and Winfred Yavi are all entered. Throw in NCAA record holder Doris Lemngole, coming off a PB in Zurich, and Stockholm champ Marwa Bouzayani, and there are five women who could conceivably crack the 8:50 barrier on a good day.

8:44.32 is the mark to beat, but Yavi has been within a tenth of a second before and she’s not necessarily the best steeplechaser in the world this year. She beat Cherotich in Lausanne, but Cherotich beat her at the Pre Classic. And while she seems to have been fitter earlier in the year, Chemutai beat them both in China way back in May. Should some combination of these athletes push each other from start to finish, Beatrice Chepkoech’s 2018 mark could finally fall.

Does Mondo end the year with yet another world record?

Mondo Duplantis has broken the world record a whopping 15 times, but his biggest challenge in recent months has been a series of increasingly close battles with Manolo Karalis. Karalis became the second man ever over 6.20m in Zurich, but he’s not entered in Brussels. That’s a shame if what you want to see is a hard-fought win, but if your goal is to see history made for the 16th time it’s probably for the best that Duplantis can sew up the victory earlier in the competition and be judicious with his attempts as he looks to clear 6.32m for the first time.

Since he ascended to the top of the all-time list, Mondo has broken the world record multiple times in 2020 (twice), 2022 (three times), 2023 (twice), 2024 (three times), and 2025 (four times). But he’s stuck at one this year after raising the bar up to 6.31m back in March. Inevitably, his shocking rate of success will slow, and whether or not he can get one or two more notches up the standards this season could be a sign of his overall improvement curve starting to flatten.