Seventy-two athletes have secured their places at the Wanda Diamond League final, which this year expands to two days in Brussels on 4 and 5 September. Three meetings remain to settle the rest: Athletissima in Lausanne on 21 August, the Kamila Skolimowska Memorial in Silesia on 23 August, and Weltklasse Zurich on 27 August. For most events the qualification picture is still open, which gives the closing fortnight an unusual amount of consequence.
Zurich carries the meeting's biggest single draw. Jakob Ingebrigtsen returns to the Diamond League in the men's 1500m at Weltklasse, his first appearance on the circuit after a season spent largely away from it. Weltklasse has historically functioned as the de facto final and still attracts fields that do not need the added incentive of qualification, which makes it the hardest of the three meetings in which to bank points late.
Silesia has assembled the discus competition of the season. Kristjan Ceh and Mykolas Alekna, gold and silver medallists at the European Championships that finished in Birmingham on Sunday, headline a men's field that also draws on the already-qualified group of Matthew Denny and Daniel Stahl. Throwing events have been the most predictable qualification races of the year, and Silesia looks likely to confirm rather than disturb that.
Lausanne opens the sequence with a 17-event programme and two distance races worth the ticket on their own: the women's 3000m steeplechase and the men's 5000m, both with fields deep enough to produce fast times rather than tactical ones. Athletissima has generally been the meeting where distance qualification is decided, and this year is unlikely to be different given how little separates the athletes on the current standings.
Only one event has a complete final line-up so far. The women's shot put is set, with Jessica Schilder, Chase Jackson, Fanny Roos, Sarah Mitton, Yemisi Mabry and Daniela Thomas-Dodd all through to Brussels. Elsewhere the confirmed names include the 100m hurdles world record holder Tobi Amusan, Olympic long jump champion Miltiadis Tentoglou and the javelin thrower Anderson Peters, but the majority of the 32 finals still have places to fill.