Jamaica’s Ackera Nugent, the world leader in the women’s 100m hurdles, secured third place at the Diamond League Final in Brussels on Saturday, clocking 12.55 seconds on the second day at the season-ending Allianz Memorial van Damme. Fellow Jamaican and 2023 world champion Danielle Williams finished fifth in 12.62.
The event appeared highly competitive on paper, but in the end 2021 Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico won comfortably in 12.38 from Nadine Visser (12.54) of Netherlands.
Jamaica also earned two more podium finishes. Shiann Salmon, a Paris Olympic finalist, took third in the women’s 400m hurdles, while Olympic bronze medallist Rajindra Campbell finished third in the men’s shot put.
In the women’s 400m hurdles, world champion Femke Bol saw off the challenge of the woman who finished one place ahead of her in Paris, USA’s Anna Cockrell, to secure victory by more than a second.
The duo were level through the first half, but the Dutch athlete then started to stride clear before going on to win in 52.45. Cockrell took second place in 53.71, 0.28 ahead of Salmon (53.99).
Janieve Russell (55.94) and Andrenette Knight (56.70), also from Jamaica, finished seventh and eighth, respectively.
In the men’s shot put, Campbell, who made history in Paris as the first Jamaican to win an Olympic medal in the event, recorded a best throw of 21.95m for his third place in Brussels.
Prior to the Olympics, European champion Italy’s Leonardo Fabbri had been the standout performer in the men’s shot put. He even beat world record-holder Ryan Crouser in their final pre-Paris clash, winning in London with 22.52m.
His Olympic experience wasn’t quite what he’d hoped for, though, as he finished fifth with 21.70m – more than a metre shy of the Italian record of 22.95m he’d set earlier in the season. His five competitions after Paris showed some slight improvement, but he hadn’t managed to achieve a victory in any of them.
He more than rectified that in Brussels, though – not only winning, but also beating Crouser, and doing so with a lifetime best of 22.98m. Crouser was second with 22.79m.
In the men’s 400m hurdles, Jamaica’s Roshawn Clarke clocked 49.08 seconds to finish fifth, with teammate Malik James-King following in sixth place with a time of 49.37 seconds.
Brazil’s Alison dos Santos took the victory to return to winning ways. The 2022 world champion had won five Diamond League meetings before the Olympics, then earned bronze in Paris but failed to finish in Zurich and placed second in Bellinzona.
Here, though, he clocked 47.93 to take the Diamond trophy, holding off Qatar’s Abderrahman Samba (48.20). Rasmus Magi of Estonia was third in 48.26.
Jamaica’s Romaine Beckford placed fourth in the men’s high jump, clearing a height of 2.22m.
European champion Gianmarco Tamberi returned to winning ways, taking the victory with 2.34m. The 2021 Olympic champion was matched at every height by Ukraine’s Oleh Doroshchuk, both mean clearing 2.28m on their second try before going clear at 2.31m on their first attempt. With the bar set at 2.34m, Tamberi was the only one to go clear, doing so on his third and final jump.
