After seven European athletes were crowned Diamond Race winners in Zurich a week ago, Madara Palameika, Piotr Malachowski, Orlando Ortega and Ekaterina Stefanidi joined them in banking the $40,000 prize as champions on another superb night of track and field in the second final of the IAAF Diamond League in Brussels on Friday.
In front of 40,000 fans at the King Baudouin Stadium, the 40th staging of the Memorial Van Damme was a night to remember
Palameika’s finest hour
Javelin thrower Madara Palameika created a double moment of Latvian history as she celebrated the biggest triumph of her career.
Palameika became the first Latvian athlete to win a Diamond Race event in the six years of the competition and achieved it with a throw of 66.18m which broke her national record.
At 29, Palameika has made her best impact on the sport since her gold at the European Athletics U23 Championships in Kaunas in 2009.
After three victories in the League during the year, it would have taken a shock outcome not for Palameika to triumph but she avoided any scares with a finale to remember and the perfect start, delivering her best throw in the first round to break her 2014 record by three centimetres.
She was never threatened on the night until the fifth round when Barbora Spotakova, the world record-holder from the Czech Republic, reached 63.78m to bring her second with American Kara Winger (61.86m) in third.
Naturally Palameika was delighted and said: 'It’s my first big international title, so it means a lot to me. I am really pleased to take the trophy home.
'I was actually chasing my pb the whole season and to get it in my final competition is great.
'I have put so much pressure on myself and after Rio, which was a huge disappointment for me (she was 10th), I just felt more relaxed.'
FINAL STANDINGS: 1. Madara Palameika (LAT) 59 points, 2. Kathryn Mitchell (Aus) 25, 3. Barbora Spotakova (CZE) 23.
Malachowski does it again
Poland’s double European discus champion Piotr Malachowski won the Diamond Race for the fourth time as he avoided any slip-ups.
Malachowski secured another success in a year where he brilliantly regained the European crown in Amsterdam in July and then won Olympic silver in Rio.
But on the night the glory in the event went to Sweden’s Daniel Stahl. He has the world lead of 68.72m and he won here in Brussels with 65.78m to overtake Malachowski, whose best throw was his first, 65.27m, with Austrian Lukas Weisshaidinger (64.73m) in third.
Beforehand in the race, Malachowski led fellow Pole Robert Urbanek by 17 points and as long as he did not finish six, his teammate had no chance of taking the title.
Urbanek ended seventh on the night with 61.96m to finish fourth in the race with 25 points as Malachowski won the title while Stahl was true to his word as he said: 'After the Olympics, where I missed the final, I said that I was not going to give up. I threw a pb at the Swedish championship (his 68.72m) and today I have managed to win my first Diamond League competition.'
Malachowski won the Diamond Race in the first year in 2010 and this fourth success is his third in a row.
FINAL STANDINGS: 1. Piotr Malachowski (POL) 54, 2. Daniel Stahl (SWE) 34, Philip Milanov (BEL) 26.
Ortega ends in style
Orlando Ortega only had to compete to confirm his Diamond Race title but he put the finishing touches to his glory by winning the 110m hurdles in 13.08 from Frenchmen Pascal Martinot-Lagarde (13.12, a season’s best) and Wilhem Belocian (13.32).
That made it four victories in the series for the Spanish star less than a month after winning silver in Rio.
But he did not have it all his own way as Martinot-Lagarde, in lane six next to him in five, led until the last 30m where Ortega made his surge for success.
'It was a long but also a very good year for me,' said Ortega. 'I have managed to perform well and the only thing I regret is that I didn’t run below 13.00.'
But he was not far off that, with his season’s best of 13.04 in Monaco in July in one of his Diamond League wins.
FINAL STANDINGS: 1. Orlando Ortega (ESP) 60, 2. Pascal Martinot-Lagarde (FRA) 23, 3. Dimitri Bascou (FRA) 21.
Stefanidi completes golden summer
What a year for Greece’s Ekaterina Stefanidi. Olympic champion, European champion and now Diamond Race champion, Stefanidi was beaten on the night by a brillaint display from American Sandi Morris but she was uncatchable in the race, such has been her dominance.
Stefanidi succeeded fellow Greek Pole vaulter Nikoleta Kyriakopoulou in winning the event in the Diamond League, as victory went to Morris in a national record as she joined Russia's Yelena Isinbayeva, the world record-holder, and teammate Jenn Suhr, the world indoor record-holder, as the only women to break 5.00m.
In Rio, Stefanidi won on countback with 4.85m from Morris and it was another great clash in Brussels, with the pair sharing an embrace at the end as the Greek star finished second on 4.76m with Switzerland’s Nicole Buchler (4.58m) in third.
Stefanidi could not have asked for more in 2016 where she has been the glorious, golden force of the event.
She would have liked to have gone higher on Friday in the Diamond League where has had four wins and said: 'I am pretty satisfied with my performance, as 4.76m is not so far away from my season’s best of 4.85m. Sandi was better than me today, like I was the better one in Rio.'
FINAL STANDINGS: 1. Ekaterina Stefanidi (GRE) 62, 2. Sandi Morris (USA) 30, Nicole Buchler (SUI) 27.
Schippers is left happy
A week after winning the 200m Diamond Race from Olympic champion Elaine Thompson, the Netherlands’ Dafne Schippers saw the places reversed in the final 100m standings.
Schippers trailed Thompson by eight points in the competition and on the night was second in 10.97 as the Jamaican won in 10.72.
'I had a decent start but when it came to accelerating mid-race, my hamstrings caused me some trouble but I am happy with the way I finished my race this late in the season,' said Schippers.
Her Dutch teammate Churandy Martina, the European 100m champion, finished second in the men's 200m Diamond Race after one of the best events of the evening.
In a thrilling race, Jamaican Julian Forte just snatched victory from Adam Gemili, with both given the same time of 19.97 and for both, a personal best, with Martina in third (19.98) in a competition won by Panama’s Alonso Edward. He secured 44 points from Martina with 27.
Poland’s Adam Kszczot produced a sensational late surge on the outside for a memorable 800m triumph in 1:44.36 as he beat Kenya’s Kipyegon Bett (1:44.44) and Bosnia & Herzegovina’s Amel Tuka (1:44.54) for third place in the Diamond Race.
And while the women’s high jump was not a Diamond League event on the night, it was an occasion to remember for Belgium’s Nafissatou Thiam, the Olympic heptathlon champion. She gave the home crowd the victory they wanted as she won with 1.93m on countback from Saint Lucia’s Levern Spencer.