NEW DELHI: As the star-studded Diamond League season finale, which will feature the best of world athletics, gets underway in Brussels on Friday, javelin throw star Neeraj Chopra will have high expectations to live up to, while steeplechaser Avinash Sable will have a chance to make up for a disappointing Olympics.
For the first time, the highlight event is split over two days, and the field includes elite competitors from every continent-including an unprecedented number of Olympic medal winners-who will compete for the top spots in 32 categories.
Among the famous athletes set to light up King Baudouin Stadium here are world-record holder Armand DuPlantis, American sprint queen Sha’Carri Richardson, and sensational hurdler Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.
After placing eleventh in the Olympic Games, national record-holding 3000m steeplechaser Sable will compete in his first-ever DL season finale on Friday.
With a historic gold in the Tokyo Games, Chopra added a silver medal to his Olympic medal count in Paris. On Saturday, he will look to cap off a successful season.
Two Indians are playing in the DL finale for the first time, as per PTI.
Sable’s three points from two meetings placed him in 14th place overall in the Diamond League rankings. However, four competitors who were placed higher than him-Ethiopia’s Lamecha Girma (injured), New Zealand’s Geordie Beamish, Japan’s Ryuji Mura, and the United States’ Hillary Bor-withdrew, enabling him to just make the top 12 cut.
Men’s 3000m steeplechase was a feature of five of the 14 DL series events held this season around the globe.
The 29-year-old Sable had improved his previous time to finish sixth in the Diamond League’s Paris leg on July 7 with a national record time of 8:09.91. On August 25, he finished 14th in the Silesia leg with a timing of 8:29.96.
However, Chopra qualified for the DL final cut after securing two second-place finishes in the one-day meets hosted in Lausanne and Doha, which put him fourth in the overall standings with 14 points.
A ‘Diamond Trophy’, USD 30,000 in prize money, and a wild card into the World Athletics Championships are given to the winners of the Diamond League season finale. USD 12,000 is awarded to the runner-up.
Chopra did not attend last week’s series meet in Zurich.
The 26-year-old trailed Czech player Jakub Vadlech by two points at the end. With 29 and 21 points, respectively, German sensation Julian Weber and Grenada’s Anderson Peters claimed the top two positions.
Chopra has had trouble staying healthy this season and is scheduled to see a physician to address a groin problem that has hindered him from reaching the 90-meter mark.
He was placed second behind Vadlejch in the winner-take-all finale in Eugene, USA, last year, and had won the Lausanne leg in 2022 and 2023.