Tebogo, Wanyonyin, Chebet get wild card to compete in Brussels at the 2024 Diamond League final

Letsile Tebogo tops the list of three African stars who have been granted a wild card to compete at next month’s 48th Allianz Memorial Van Damme in Brussels, Belgium which will serve as the final of the 15-leg 2024 Wanda Diamond League meetings, athletics’ premier one-day series.

Tebogo, who will be in action in Lausanne, Silesia and Rome this month, won an historic 200m gold at the Paris 2024 Olympics and will compete in both the 100m and 200m events in Brussels irrespective of his standing in the two events going into the final.

The other two are both Kenyans viz Olympic 800m champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi who will run his favorite distance and double gold medal winner Beatrice Chebet (5000m and 10000m) who will start as a favourite in the 5000m in Brussels.

While Tebogo will be looking to win his first Diamond League title, Wanyonyin will be seeking for a successful title defence after running a new 1:42.80 meeting record to win last year in Oregon, USA.

Chebet, despite running a new 14:05.92, will be aiming to reclaim the 5000m title she lost last year to Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay who ran a new 14:00.21 world record to win it.

Also through to the final via the wild card route is Kenya-born Bahraini, Winfred Yavi who won the women’s 3000m Steeplechase gold medal in Paris and will be happy to add the Diamond League victory to her tally.

Others are St Lucia star, Julien Alfred, the fastest woman in the World courtesy of her 100m victory at the Olympics, Mondo Duplantis in the Pole Vault who also set a new world record on his way to successfully defending his title, Jakob Ingebrigtsen who rose from the disappointment of losing out in the 1500m to claim the 5000m gold, Ukrainian, Yaroslava Mahuchikh who raised the bar to 2.10m in the high jump days before returning to Paris to win the high jump gold and the flying Dutchwoman, Femke Bol.

Organizers of the event has not announced any wild card for the 100m hurdles yet giving world record holder, Tobi Amusan hope of getting a look in as she has not been confirmed for the qualifying events, as it were, in Lausanne on Thursday and Silesia on Sunday.

The Nigerian still has two more qualifying windows in Rome and Zurich if she has not ended her season after the disappointment of not making it to the final in Paris at the Olympics.