Cameron Myers claimed his first Diamond Trophy on Friday night at the King Baudouin Stadium, winning the 1500m final in 3:30.14 with a finish that held off Kenya's Phanuel Koech by four hundredths of a second. Ethan Strand, who had beaten both Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Cole Hocker in Silesia last month, was third in 3:30.50, and Ingebrigtsen faded to fourth in 3:30.52 after leading into the final lap. Yared Nuguse, Hobbs Kessler and Hocker were fifth, sixth and seventh, meaning the five-strong American contingent that came to Brussels chasing a first Diamond League distance title since 2019 left with a single bronze between them.
Ingebrigtsen's season-best 3:30.52 was a reminder of how compressed his 2026 has been. The Norwegian only returned from Achilles surgery in July and has raced the 1500m sparingly since, and while he had the strength to make the race honest he did not have the change of pace to answer Myers and Koech over the last 100 metres. The 20-year-old Australian, by contrast, has now beaten every major 1500m runner in the world at some point this summer, and heads to the World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest next week as the form athlete in the event.
The night's fastest performance came in the closing race, where Botswana's Collen Kebinatshipi won the 400m in 43.40, a Diamond League record, a national record and the fastest time in the world this year. Jereem Richards ran a Trinidad and Tobago record of 43.68 in second, and Jacory Patterson and Chris Bailey ran personal bests of 43.78 and 43.97 for the United States, with Matthew Hudson-Smith fifth in 44.23. Earlier, two-time world champion Chase Jackson threw 21.14m in the shot, an American and Diamond League record and only the second time she has passed 21 metres.
Emmanuel Wanyonyi won his fourth consecutive Diamond League 800m final, running a meeting record of 1:41.80 to beat Djamel Sedjati by almost a second, while Yanis Meziane's 1:42.87 personal best in third secured the Frenchman the last remaining Ultimate Championship place in the event. Faith Cherotich came past Winfred Yavi in the home straight to win the women's steeplechase in a meeting record 8:51.61, with Doris Lemngole also overhauling the Olympic champion for second. Freweyni Hailu led an Ethiopian one-two-three in the 5000m in 14:35.20, Oblique Seville won a re-started 100m in 9.90 after a false start, and Julien Alfred took the 200m in 21.79.
The evening was not without disappointment. Mondo Duplantis withdrew from the pole vault after feeling tightness in his leg during the warm-up, telling the broadcast that it broke his heart to miss a competition in front of a near-capacity crowd. In the field, Kristjan Ceh threw a meeting record 71.29m to win the discus from Mykolas Alekna, Tajay Gayle's final-round 8.46m took the long jump from Miltiadis Tentoglou, and Poland's Mateusz Kolodziejski won the high jump at 2.28m. The meeting concludes on Saturday with the men's 5000m, women's 1500m, men's steeplechase and women's 800m finals, and the Americans' last chances of a distance title lie with Graham Blanks and Nikki Hiltz.