Running News Daily

Jakob Ingebrigtsen is heading to Brussels — and the Norwegian superstar arrives with something to prove.

The two-time Olympic champion has been confirmed for the men’s 1500m at the Allianz Memorial Van Damme on September 4, the opening night of the 2026 Wanda Diamond League Final. With Brussels bringing together the world’s elite for the final battle of the Diamond League season, Ingebrigtsen’s presence immediately adds another layer of intrigue to an already spectacular meeting.

For Ingebrigtsen, however, this is about much more than another Diamond League appearance. It is another important step in a comeback that began under some of the most difficult circumstances of his career.

The Norwegian spent almost 11 months away from competition after an Achilles injury required surgery earlier this year. When he finally returned at the European Championships in Birmingham, there were legitimate questions about how quickly he could rediscover the form that had made him one of the most feared middle-distance runners in the world.

He answered them emphatically.

In his first race of 2026, Ingebrigtsen produced a trademark finishing burst to win the European 5000m title in 13:15.29, securing an extraordinary fourth consecutive European crown in the event. The victory also extended his record as the most successful male athlete in European Athletics Championships history.

But the 1500m has presented a very different challenge.

Ingebrigtsen returned to Diamond League competition over 1500m in Silesia on August 23, finishing fourth in 3:31.19. Four days later in Zürich, he was fifth in 3:32.16. Those performances were far from disastrous for an athlete still rebuilding his racing sharpness, but they also revealed that the explosive rhythm that once made him almost untouchable over 1500m is still being recovered.

Now comes Brussels.

The Belgian capital provides Ingebrigtsen with his third Diamond League 1500m race of the season and perhaps his most intriguing opportunity yet to show how far his comeback has progressed.

There is history here, too. In 2024, Ingebrigtsen won the Brussels Diamond League 1500m in 3:30.37, beating Timothy Cheruiyot and Cole Hocker in a world-class field.

Two years later, he returns to the same stage under completely different circumstances.

This time, he is not arriving as the untouchable favourite who has dominated every major 1500m challenge. He is arriving as a champion rebuilding himself — race by race, lap by lap, and with his body still demanding patience after a serious Achilles setback.

That is precisely what makes Friday night so compelling.

Brussels is the opening night of a two-day Diamond League Final, with the Allianz Memorial Van Damme serving as the season-ending championship meeting for the series.  For Ingebrigtsen, it represents another opportunity to turn encouraging signs into a definitive statement.

Can he rediscover the speed?

Can he unleash the devastating final 300 metres that has become his trademark?

And, most importantly, can he once again look like the Jakob Ingebrigtsen who has ruled the 1500m and 5000m on the biggest stages?

There is another chapter waiting beyond Brussels.

The World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest, scheduled for September 11–13, promises another major showdown, with Ingebrigtsen expected to face fierce opposition including Britain’s Josh Kerr. The rivalry between the two has already produced some of the most compelling middle-distance battles of recent years.

But before Budapest, there is Brussels.

One race. One final Diamond League stage. One more opportunity for Ingebrigtsen to remind the athletics world that his comeback is not simply about returning to competition — it is about returning to the very top.

The Norwegian has already shown that the championship instinct remains intact.

Now, he needs the 1500m speed to come back.

And if Jakob Ingebrigtsen finds that missing gear in Brussels, the rest of the middle-distance world may have a serious problem.

Keely Hodgkinson is ready to step back onto the track in Brussels, and her return could add another explosive chapter to one of the most compelling women’s 800m rivalries of the 2026 season.

The British Olympic champion is scheduled to line up in the women’s 800m at the Wanda Diamond League Final at the Allianz Memorial Van Damme on Saturday, September 5, after deliberately sitting out the Zurich Diamond League meeting to give her body more time to recover. Hodgkinson had been due to face Audrey Werro in Zurich but withdrew, explaining that she was not yet ready to race.

That decision underlined just how carefully the 24-year-old has been managing her season. After a demanding European Championships campaign in Birmingham, where she was beaten to the 800m title by Werro, Hodgkinson chose recovery rather than forcing another race before she was fully prepared.

Now, Brussels presents an entirely different proposition.

The stage is set for a spectacular clash featuring some of the biggest names in the event. Hodgkinson will have to contend with Werro, the Swiss sensation who has transformed herself into one of the most formidable 800m runners in the world, while Femke Bol brings another dimension to the field following her remarkable transition from the 400m hurdles to the two-lap event. Reigning world champion Lilian Odira of Kenya is also confirmed for the Brussels showdown.

And there is plenty of unfinished business.

Werro has been operating at an extraordinary level this season. In Zurich, while Hodgkinson watched from the sidelines, the Swiss star produced a stunning 1:53.70 personal best and national record — one of the fastest performances ever recorded over 800m. Bol followed her home in a personal best, making the gap between the leading contenders even narrower.

Hodgkinson, however, has already demonstrated that she belongs in that conversation. Earlier this season in Stockholm, she ran 1:54.33, placing herself sixth on the all-time 800m list. Her championship pedigree is equally formidable: she is the reigning Olympic champion and a former Diamond League champion, with years of experience performing when the pressure is highest.

That makes Brussels far more than another race.

For Hodgkinson, it is an opportunity to answer questions raised by her European Championships defeat and prove that a carefully managed return can put her back at the centre of the 800m battle. For Werro, it is another chance to confirm that she has moved from rising star to genuine global force. For Bol and Odira, it is an opportunity to disrupt the established order.

With four elite names bringing different strengths to the same two-lap battlefield, the slightest tactical mistake could decide everything.

The King Baudouin Stadium is therefore set for an 800m final loaded with speed, rivalry and unfinished business. Hodgkinson has taken the patient route back. Now comes the moment when she must show what that patience has prepared her for.

Brussels is waiting — and the women’s 800m could deliver one of the defining races of the 2026 Diamond League season

Two-time 1,500 Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon will be seeking to become the first woman to win three titles in the same individual track event at the Olympics, when she lines up in the semifinals of the race on Thursday at the Stade de France.

The defending champion clocked (4:00.74) to finish fourth in heat two, behind winner Ethiopia’s Diribe Welteji (3:59.73), Britain’s Georgia Bell (4:00.290 and USA’s Nikki Hiltz (4:00.42) yesterday.

The heats came barely 12 hours after Kipyegon successfully appealed to overturn her disqualification from the 5,000m after a mid-race altercation with Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay in which both narrowly missed crashing onto the track.

Kipyegon grabbed silver in 14:29.60, finishing ahead of the Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan (14:30.61) as compatriot Beatrice Chebet grabbed gold in (14:28.56).

However, the track queen will have to be mentally fit in Thursday’s semis, to reach Saturday’s finals, following a drama packed Monday night 5,000m race finals.

“I feel fresh and ready for the semis, I am Faith and I participate in a good way and I believe in myself. It was a good race a lot of pushing up and down but all in all, it is finished and I focus on the 1,500m semis,” Kipyegon said.

Kipyegon who didn’t manage to talk to journalists after Monday’s drama didn’t want to dwell much on the matter.

“I just went to the village and took a nap knowing that I had another race the next morning. I was not disappointed but this is another distance altogether, I really thank Kenyans for the support and prayers as we continue pushing in the 1,500m,” Kipyegon said.

Having put Monday’s drama behind her, she goes to the semis not having lost in the 1,500m since 2021, with the historical third Olympic title beckoning.

The world champion must beat three of the five fastest 1,500m runners in history, including her Ethiopian rival Tsegay and Austraila’s Jessica Hull, to reach her dreams.

She will fly the Kenyan flag alongside compatriots Susan Ejore and Nelly Jepchirchir who also qualified for the semis.

The Kenyan star ended her 2023 track campaign with a 1,500m win at the Wanda Diamond League final in Eugene on 26 Aug 2023.

She ran 3:53.98 in the 1,500m and 14:46.28 for 5,000m in Nairobi, during the Kenyan Olympic trials.

Faith warmed up for the Olympics by breaking the world 1,500m record again at the Paris Diamond League meeting on July 7, 2024 after clocking 3:49.04

Poland’s Anita Wlodarczyk is the only woman in the history of the games to ever claim a threepeat, as well as possessing the two fastest performances of all time in the hammer throw.

Athing Mu, Mary Moraa and Keely Hodgkinson – the three women who’ve claimed the 800m medals at the past two World Championships – will clash at the Prefontaine Classic when the Wanda Diamond League reaches Eugene on 25 May.

Mu won in Eugene last year when Hayward Field hosted the Wanda Diamond League Final. Having finished third at the World Championships three months prior, the Olympic champion gained revenge on home soil and kicked to victory in a US record of 1:54.97.

Hodgkinson – as she had done at the Olympics in 2021, as well as at the 2022 and 2023 World Championships – finished second on that occasion in a British record of 1:55.19.

Moraa wound up fourth in that race, but the Kenyan had won the biggest prize of the year in Budapest, taking the world title in a PB of 1:56.03.

The trio have clashed just three times in the past, with Mu coming out on top in two of those encounters.

It’s the second big middle-distance clash announced by the Prefontaine Classic, following the news last month that Olympic 1500m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen will take on world champion Josh Kerr and North American record-holder Yared Nuguse in the Bowerman mile.

Just a few miles away from the site of his world 10,000m record three years prior, Joshua Cheptegei stumbled towards the finish line of the Valencia Marathon.

On the track, the Olympic 5000m gold medallist and three-time world 10,000m champion is renowned for his unbeatable finishing strength. But in what was his debut over the marathon distance, with each foot somehow supporting a tired body on the brink, the Ugandan had to be content with 37th place in the Spanish city, clocking 2:08:59.

Cheptegei wasn’t too disappointed or surprised, though. Supported by race organiser Marc Roig, Cheptegei hobbled to the elite finishers’ tent immediately after the race, beaming from ear to ear.

A few days before, Cheptegei had prophetically warned: "The marathon has no respect for people.”

Not even Olympic champions, it would seem.

Fans have grown used to Cheptegei finding his rhythm in a leading pack, so it was no surprise to see him there at halfway. Going through 13.1 miles in 1:00:36 wasn’t part of the plan – not that there necessarily was one.

When asked in the build-up to the race what he wanted from his debut, Cheptegei simply said: “I want to learn.”

Collapsing over the line with a rueful smile, Cheptegei made it clear that his objective had been achieved.

He knew that his preparation for the event had been far from perfect. It started with pulling out of the Wanda Diamond League final due to a reaction to wearing spikes in defending his world 10,000m crown in Budapest. Once he did return, the weeks that followed saw his usual runs around the rolling hills of Kapchorwa deemed too dangerous due to constant deluges.

Cheptegei never ran more than 160km a week – which, by the standards of most current marathon specialists, was a light schedule.

Yet in Valencia, he still chose to go with the pace. Many would expect little else from a world 5000m and 10,000m record holder consistently pushing the margins of the possible.

For many fans, their first clear memory of Cheptegei at a senior level was his performance at the 2017 World Cross Country Championships on home soil in Kampala.

That day, the 2016 Olympic 10,000m sixth-place finisher ripped the senior race apart, striding away through the middle section and building a huge lead into the final kilometer.

The Ugandan fans chasing him in bursts around the course almost went as far as to hand over the red, yellow and black flag.

As the commentators proclaimed his title, Cheptegei had pushed himself to the limit, a smooth stride rolling to a wayward struggle.

Defending champion Geoffrey Kamworor – a former mentor to Cheptegei during his time in Kenya in 2015 – silenced the crowds, passing the struggling Ugandan in a fleeting second and going on to win. Cheptegei eventually finished 30th.

“Joshua had a great belief and a great determination in running,” Kamworor commented on his Ugandan rival. “Whenever you talk with him, you could see in his mind that he had great aspirations in life.

“He's even becoming one of my mentors.”

Cheptegei won the senior title at his next attempt in Aarhus in 2019, the year of the first of three consecutive world 10,000m titles. An Olympic silver in Tokyo in that event accompanied 5000m gold.

Risks taken, lessons learnt all in a bid to break new ground. It's core to Cheptegei’s philosophy as a runner and ultimately role model to those that follow him around the world but perhaps most importantly back home in Uganda.

It’s also followed him since his first days as a professional.

While training with Kamworor, Eliud Kipchoge and the rest in Kaptagat, barely aged 20, the 2014 world U20 10,000m champion made a difficult but bold decision.

“I told my management that I wanted to go back home and build a running culture, and to inspire the young generation here in Uganda.”

As a young athlete – and although it happened 24 years before Cheptegei was born – Cheptegei was made aware of the fact that John Akii-Bua earned Uganda's first Olympic athletics medal when taking 400m hurdles gold in Munich in 1972.

It’s clear that Cheptegei now feels a sense of responsibility when it comes to developing the sport in his country, in much the same way Akii-Bua did more than 50 years ago.

“It’s a privilege to have had great guys like him open the way for us, especially in a difficult time where the country was unstable,” says Cheptegei.

Akii-Bua was forced to live out a large part of his life outside Uganda, moving to Kenya towards the final days of the Idi Amin dictatorship.

Likewise, Uganda’s next Olympic gold medalist, Stephen Kiprotich, trained for much of his career in their eastern neighbor.

The then 15-year-old Cheptegei admits taking a break from kicking a football around the schoolyard to watch Kiprotich win Olympic marathon gold in 2012, that being the moment he made his own plans for global success.

“I was like, ‘right it’s in my heart. I want to become a champion, a national hero like him’.”

Cheptegei has developed those ambitions. For better or worse, he aims to deliberately show the next generation they need not leave home. No altitude camps elsewhere, high tech facilities or trips to some winter sun.

“I have always trained in Uganda, always and always," he reiterates.

Despite the world records, Olympic gold and world championship titles, Cheptegei still feels that to prove that emphatically, one achievement remains left to tick off.

It's all about the number 10.

“2024, it’ll be 10 years running internationally,” he says. “10 years at a high level.

“I'm still in love with the 10,000m, the special distance. I still want to go to Paris and win.”

Only Kenenisa Bekele and Haile Gebrselassie have won more world 10,000m titles than Cheptegei. Both won two Olympic golds in the event.

Cheptegei will head to the French capital hungry to find his first, motivated in the knowledge that in doing so he'll send a message to that young Ugandan watching, hoping to follow in his path.

Laulauga Tausaga-Collins led a gold medal sweep for the USA as five records fell on the opening day of the North and Central American & Caribbean (NACAC) Championships at the Grand Bahama Sports Complex in Freeport, The Bahamas, on Friday (19).

A World Championships finalist, Tausaga-Collins broke the discus championship record twice in her first two throws (62.21m and 63.18m) to claim one of the eight titles for the USA.

Three other women surpassed the 60-metre mark, all in the final round, but it was not enough to catch the US thrower, who was pleased with her win before heading to the Wanda Diamond League final.

Cuba’s 2015 world champion and 2016 Olympic bronze medallist Denia Caballero returned to competition after a full pause following the 2021 season and moved from fourth to silver with 61.86m in the sixth round, finishing ahead of USA’s Rachel Dincoff (61.56m) and Cuba’s Silinda Morales (60.73m).

Despite the hot and humid weather conditions, US distance runners rewrote three records: Gabrielle Jennings in the women’s 3000m steeplechase (9:34.36), Natosha Rogers in the 5000m (15:11.68) and Sean McGorty in the 10,000m (29:23.77) with the latter erasing one of the two remaining men’s championship records from the inaugural edition in El Salvador in 2007.

Not only did Jennings and Rogers break the championship records, they also led medal sweeps for the USA. Katie Rainsberger and Carmen Graves took silver and bronze in the steeplechase, while Fiona O’Keefe and Eleanor Fulton secured the other podium places in the 5000m.

USA’s 2016 world indoor champion Vashti Cunningham found some redemption after failing to reach the World Championships final on home soil. The three-time global medallist and Olympic finalist cleared 1.92m on her first attempt in the women’s high jump final, breaking St Lucia’s three-time winner Lavern Spencer’s 1.91m record set in Toronto in 2018.

One of the biggest surprises of the first day came in the women’s hammer, where USA’s world bronze medallist Janee’ Kassanavoid got the better of world champion Brooke Andersen. Kassanavoid won with 71.51m as Andersen managed 68.66m, recording just her second defeat of what has otherwise been a highly successful breakthrough season.

Oop The other winners on the opening day were Chris Bernard in the men’s triple jump (16.40m) and Roger Steen in the shot put (20.78m).

In other action outside the finals, world and Olympic champion Shaune Miller-Uibo delighted the home crowd with an easy semifinal win in the women’s 400m in 50.84, only 0.02 off the championship record. Jamaica’s Olympic bronze medallist Megan Tapper led the semifinals in the 100m hurdles (12.62) while her compatriot Andrew Hudson (20.25) and USA’s Brittany Brown (22.59) led the 200m semifinals.

A total of 17 finals will be contested on Saturday, including the men’s and women's 100m and 400m, featuring two other individual world champions from Eugene: Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson (200m champion running 100m) and Miller-Uibo.

The fourth edition of the championships, held for the first time to the Caribbean, was opened by the Prime Minister of The Bahamas, Philip Davis, and is dedicated to the late Anita Doherty, an educator of many generations of Bahamians, who competed for the island nation in the pentathlon at the 1970 Commonwealth Games.

The Wanda Diamond League Final will be held alternately in Zurich and Brussels between 2024 and 2027, following a decision by the Diamond League Association’s General Assembly in March.

Hosting rights for the two-day season finale – at which all 32 Diamond League champions are crowned – have been awarded to the Allianz Memorial van Damme meeting in Brussels for 2024 and 2026, and to Weltklasse Zurich for 2025 and 2027.

The General Assembly made the decision on the recommendation of the Quality Commission, which reviews applications to host the final.

The host city is now confirmed for each of the next five Wanda Diamond League seasons, ensuring all stakeholders are able to plan beyond the short-term.

The final will be held in Zurich on September 7-8, this season, before moving out of Europe, for the first time in the series’ history, to the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene in 2023. Zurich was also the host in 2021, becoming the first city to hold the final as a two-day event featuring all 32 Diamond Disciplines.

As in 2021, future finals held in Zurich will be split between city and stadium. Day one will see selected Diamond League champions crowned at the iconic Sechselautenplatz in Zurich city center, while the remaining disciplines will be held as part of a bumper programme at the Letzigrund Stadium on day two.

In both Eugene and Brussels, both decisive days will take place at the stadium, the former at the newly renovated Hayward Field, and the latter at the Belgian capital’s King Baudouin II Stadium.

Memorial Van Damme will celebrate its 50th anniversary when it hosts the final in 2026.

The Wanda Diamond League Final is the showpiece event of track and field’s premier international one-day circuit and features the biggest stars of the sport.

Athletes compete for points at Wanda Diamond League meetings throughout the season, with the most successful qualifying for a place in the final and a shot at the iconic Diamond Trophy, the most prestigious title in athletics beyond the major championships.

Both the Brussels and the Zurich meetings have a wealth of experience in hosting the showcase event, having been joint hosts between 2010 and 2019, when the final was split between two separate meetings.

Both have also played host to some of the most memorable moments in Diamond League history.

The past two winners of the women's Millrose Games Wanamaker Mile – Elle Purrier St Pierre and Konstanze Klosterhalfen – will race for further success when the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting returns in New York on 29 January.

World 5000m bronze medallist Klosterhalfen is the 2019 Wanamaker Mile champion and the multiple German record-holder went on to chase Purrier St Pierre all the way to the line in the 2020 race, setting her personal best of 4:17.26. Last year she placed eighth in the Olympic 10,000m final, going close to her national record with 31:01.97.

Purrier St Pierre, meanwhile, set her US indoor mile record of 4:16.85 at that 2020 Millrose Games meeting, a time which places her second on the world indoor all-time list. Since that breakout performance, she has set a North American indoor record of 9:10.28 for two miles, taking her to third on the world indoor all-time list, and then won at the US Trials in a meeting record of 3:58.05. She went on to place 10th in a high-quality Olympic final in Tokyo.

"I am really looking forward to racing the Wanamaker Mile this year," Purrier St Pierre said.

"This race has always been a special one for me and I certainly missed it last year. It's one of the most prestigious and historic races, it's always fun and always competitive, just the way I like it."

Joining them in the WHOOP Women’s Wanamaker Mile field are two other athletes who represented the USA in the Tokyo Olympic Games 1500m.

Cory McGee and Heather MacLean placed second and third respectively in last year’s Olympic Trials behind Purrier St Pierre, with McGee going on to finish 12th in the Olympic final and MacLean reaching the semifinals.

Josette Norris also joins the mix after a season in which she broke four minutes in the 1500m and placed third in the Zurich Wanda Diamond League final. 

Other major threats will be Jessica Hull, the Australian record-holder and four-time NCAA champion, along with world finalist Nikki Hiltz, British Olympian Katie Snowden and Spanish Olympian Esther Guerrero.

Rounding out the field is Olympic Trials fourth-place finisher Shannon Osika and both the 2021 NCAA mile and 1500m champions in Sage Hurta and Anna Camp Bennett, respectively.

Other athletes so far announced for the Millrose Games include world 100m hurdles record-holder Kendra Harrison, 2016 world indoor 60m champion Trayvon Bromell, Olympic shot put champion Ryan Crouser, world shot put champion Joe Kovacs, Olympic 800m champion Athing Mu, Olympic pole vault champion Katie Nageotte and world indoor pole vault champion Sandi Morris.

Athletes from at least 28 countries are expected to compete when the final meeting of this year’s Continental Tour Gold series is held at the Kasarani Stadium, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting, in Nairobi, Kenya, on September 18, which recently hosted the World Athletics U20 Championships.

After winning her second Olympic 1500m title and then claiming the series crown at the Wanda Diamond League final in Zurich, Kenya’s Kipyegon will make her Kip Keino Classic debut. Uganda’s Olympic 3000m steeplechase champion Chemutai, meanwhile, returns to the event after her sixth-place finish in the inaugural edition of the meeting last year.

Both Olympic steeplechase champions will be competing, with Soufiane El Bakkali of Morocco having already been announced for the men’s race. He is set to be joined on the start line by Kenya's world U20 champion Amos Serem.

Like Kipyegon, USA’s Fred Kerley claimed a Diamond Trophy in Zurich, becoming the first athlete to ever win top series honours in both the 100m and 400m. Three years after his 400m success, Kerley won the 100m in 9.87 in Zurich and the Olympic 100m silver medallist is now set to race in Nairobi.

In men's 100m action will be the USA’s world leader Trayvon Bromell, Kenyan record-holder Ferdinand Omanyala and the USA’s Justin Gatlin, while Botswana’s Isaac Makwala has been announced for the 400m.

Namibia's Christine Mboma improved her world U20 record and African record to 21.78 to win the 200m Diamond Trophy in Zurich and the Olympic silver medallist returns to Nairobi, where the 18-year-old won the world U20 title last month.

The men’s hammer competition will also feature an Olympic champion, with Poland's Wojciech Nowicki among those who will be seeking more success when they compete in Kenya.

Ukraine’s world finalist Iryna Klymets will compete in the women’s event.

At tonight's talent-packed Wanda Diamond League Final at the Letzigrund in Zürich, Kenya's Timothy Cheruiyot evened the score with Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen by defeating the reigning Olympic 1500m champion by just 8/100ths of a second, reversing their finish places from Tokyo. With his victory tonight, Cheruiyot retained the Diamond League title he had earned in Brussels in 2019 and sent a signal that he'll be tough to beat at next summer's World Athletics Championships in Eugene where he will come in as reigning champion.

"That was good but a very tight race," Cheruiyot said. "I knew the standard was strong here, and I am happy."

In last month's Olympic final, Ingebrigtsen cleverly shadowed Cheruiyot throughout the race before overwhelming the Kenyan in the final sprint. Tonight, Cheruiyot took the lead from Australia's Stewart McSweyn at the bell, and held his lead through the final bend where Ingebrigtsen was still close behind. In the last 100 meters, Cheruiyot kept his signature forward-leaning form as he accelerated to the finish line in 3:31.37. Ingebrigtsen tied up in the final meters and had to settle for second in 3:31.45. McSweyn held on for third in 3:32.14 just ahead of his compatriot Oliver Hoare who ran a personal best 3:32.66.

"It is what it is," lamented Ingebrigtsen. "I am really happy with what I did in Tokyo. It is tough to go into races afterwards. So I am just happy to be done with this season and looking forward to the World Championships next year."

Cheruiyot, who nearly missed out on Olympic team selection after he only finished fourth at the Kenyan Olympic Trials, is also looking forward to 2022.

"I was having many challenges in Tokyo, so now I am getting better," he said referring to a pesky hamstring injury. "My hamstring is getting better and I am prepared for next season. My goal is that I know I need to defend my world title at next year's championships. That is my target now, but I need to work out (hard) because I know Jakob Ingebrigtsen is going to continue to get better."

In another epic rematch from Tokyo, Kenyan Faith Kipyegon out-sprinted Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan to win the women's 1500m in 3:58.33. Like in the men's race, Kipyegon was able to hold her form and run smoothly through the tape, while an exhausted-looking Hassan thrashed her way to second in 3:58.55. Hassan had defeated Kipyegon in the 2019 World Athletics Championships, but Kipyegon beat Hassan to third place in last month's Olympics. Their rivalry is sure to continue into next year.

"I was confident that in the last lap I could do better and it worked," Kipyegon said. "This is my second Diamond League trophy and my first as a mother. My family is watching tonight from home. I started my season well and I finished it well, I won almost all my competitions, especially the Olympic final. I am so grateful."

Kenyan men also won the 800m and 3000m steeplechase. In the two-lap event, reigning Olympic gold and silver medalists, Emmanuel Korir and Ferguson Rotich, finished in the same order again tonight. Rotich tried to win with a long drive from 250 meters out, but Korir --who was sprinting furiously-- passed him in the homestretch to win 1:44.56 to 1:44.96. American Clayton Murphy got third (1:45.21).

"I think it was tough today," said Korir. "But I managed to follow my strategy, tried to push it in the end and now I have this Trophy and I am very glad."

Benjamin Kigen upset Olympic champion Soufiane El Bakkali of Morocco in the steeplechase by running away from the field on the backstretch of the final lap, hurdling the final water jump, then holding on in the homestretch before El Bakkali could catch him. Kigen clocked 8:17.45 to El Bakkali's 8:17.70.

"It was my wish to win today," said Kigen. "I am very happy now. Today was not a matter of time, but it was a matter of winning."

A Kenyan also won the women's steeplechase. Norah Jeruto, who did not compete in Tokyo despite being the fastest steeplechaser of the year (8:53.65), won a two-way battle over compatriot Hyvin Kiyeng on the final lap. The two women were even going into the last water jump, but Kiyeng landed flat-footed, lost her momentum, and Jeruto scampered away. Jeruto was clocked in 9:07.33 to Kiyeng's 9:08.55. Olympic silver medalist Courtney Frerichs finished third in 9:08.74; her strong sprint got her past Ethiopia's Mekides Abebe and Kenya's Celliphine Chespol.

British teen Keely Hodgkinson, the Olympic 800m silver medalist, added "Diamond League Champion" to her résumé tonight when she pulled away from Jamaica's Natoya Goule in the homestretch to win in 1:57.98. Gould looked safe for second, but a charging Kate Grace just edged her at the line (both women were timed in 1:58.34). Jemma Reekie, Hodgkinson's Olympic teammate, finished fourth in 1:58.61, the same position as the Tokyo Olympics.

All the event winners tonight earned provisional starting starting spots at next summer's World Athletics Championships (conditions apply) and earned USD 30,000.

With Weltklasse Zurich unable to go ahead as planned this year, innovation-driven meeting organisers have instead launched the 'Inspiration Games', a border-spanning Wanda Diamond League exhibition event to be held on 9 July.

The 'Weltklasse Zurich Inspiration Games' will see 30 track and field superstars compete across eight disciplines in an innovative team event spanning seven stadiums and three continents. The aim is not only to provide live sport for athletics fans across the world, but also to inspire the next generation.

As host of the Wanda Diamond League Final, Weltklasse had expected to welcome the world's biggest athletics stars to Zurich this year. But with this year's edition cancelled due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis, Swiss fans will now have to wait until 2021 and 2022 for the three-day series finale to return to the city.

Instead, Zurich plans to take itself to the world on 9 July, by hosting an innovative new live team event, with dozens of athletes competing simultaneously in different venues across the globe.

"We want to offer fans what they have long been yearning for: a world class live athletics event," said meeting director Christoph Joho.

Three-way clashes

The innovative format will see the world's best athletes line up in a series of three-way clashes between Europe, the USA and the rest of the world. In the 150m, for example, Bahamian Olympic 400m champion and 200m Diamond League champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo will take on US star and six-time Olympic champion Allyson Felix and Switzerland's world bronze medallist Mujinga Kambundi. While Kambundji will burst out of the blocks in Zurich, Felix will compete in Walnut, California, and Miller-Uibo in Miramar, Florida.

Innovative broadcasting

The format, developed in co-peration with World Athletics, the Wanda Diamond League, Swiss Timing and broadcaster SRG SSR, will also showcase traditional athletics from a completely new angle thanks to a unique, specially designed broadcast to be produced by SRG SSR and beamed out across the world.

"To simultaneously broadcast three different venues in each discipline will certainly be a technical challenge," said Karin Nussbaumer, SRG SSR's national coordinator. "Time delays will have to be corrected so that everything is synchronised for the viewer. It is highly demanding to organise such a broadcast."

Inspiration

Yet overcoming challenges is precisely what the Inspiration Games are about, says meeting director Andreas Hediger. The event will be the second part of Weltklasse's 'Inspiration Series', which began with the nationwide 'OneMillionRun' event involving 80,000 Swiss residents in May.

"Both projects are about giving a positive signal and overcoming hurdles," said Hediger. "National and international stars such as Kambundji, Miller-Uibo and Felix are important role models in this respect. They can show the youngsters just how far you can go if you never stop improving, dreaming and believing in yourself."