{"id":44615,"date":"2026-09-04T11:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T09:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=44615"},"modified":"2026-09-04T11:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T09:14:10","slug":"over-40-african-athletes-target-diamond-league-titles-as-2026-brussels-finale-begins","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/over-40-african-athletes-target-diamond-league-titles-as-2026-brussels-finale-begins\/","title":{"rendered":"Over 40 African athletes target Diamond League titles as 2026 Brussels finale begins \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Over 40 elite African athletes are set to compete at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels as the two-day finale of the 2026 Diamond League series gets underway this Friday evening.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The continental contingent is aiming to wrap up the 15-leg global circuit by competing for Diamond Trophies, podium finishes, and prize money. Leading the African campaign are high-profile contenders including Botswana\u2019s 400-metre world champion Collen Kebinatshipi, Kenya\u2019s 800-metre World and Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi, and Morocco\u2019s Soufiane El Bakkali in the 3 000-metre steeplechase.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Attention is also focused on the men\u2019s 200 metres, where an all-Southern African trio, Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo of Botswana, South Africa\u2019s (SA) Sinesipho Dambile, and Zimbabwe\u2019s Makanakaishe Charamba, will look to replicate their podium sweep from the recent Lausanne leg. They face stiff international competition from Jamaica\u2019s Oblique Seville and the United States\u2019 Kenneth Bednarek.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Other notable African entries across the weekend include Nigeria\u2019s Tobi Amusan, Kanyinsola Ajayi, and Ezekiel Nathaniel, Cameroon\u2019s Emmanuel Esseme, alongside SA sprint and distance contenders Zakithi Nene, Tshepo Tshite, Gift Leotlela, and Akani Simbine.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":44617,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,20],"class_list":["post-44615","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"African stars set for Diamond League Finale in Brussels","published_date":"2026-09-04 11:09:54","news_description":"African stars set for Diamond League Finale in Brussels","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/44615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/44615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44618,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/44615\/revisions\/44618"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=44615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}