Dalilah Muhammad celebrates winning gold in the women's 400-meter hurdles at the Olympic Games Rio 2016 on Aug. 18, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.
The 2017 IAAF Diamond League wrapped up with a whole bunch of Team USA trohpies on Friday in Brussels.
U.S. athletes won five Diamond League titles, including four on Friday, in the second of two Diamond League Finals meets. Men’s pole vaulter Sam Kendricks won his event on Aug. 30 in Zurich, Switzerland.
The Brussels event actually began on Thursday with U.S. athletes taking 1-2-3 in the men’s shot put competition. Darrell Hill, who made his Olympic debut last summer in Rio, reached a distance of 22.44 meters on his final throw, beating his own previous personal and season best of 21.91 and setting a new meet record.
Reigning Olympic champion Ryan Crouser finished second with a throw of 22.37, and Olympic silver medalist Joe Kovacs was third with 21.62.
Fifteen events were held on Friday in the last of 14 Diamond League meets this season.
Dalilah Muhammad, the 2016 Olympic gold medalist in the women’s 400-meter hurdles, was crowned champion in the event once again as she crossed the finish line with a time of 53.89 seconds. U.S. teammate and Olympic bronze medalist Ashley Spencer was, again, third with a time of 54.92.
Christian Taylor continued his domination of the men’s triple jump, adding the 2017 Diamond League title to his vast collection of gold medals that includes those from the 2011, 2015 and 2017 world championships and the 2012 and 2016 Olympics. He had a best jump of 17.49 meters, with teammate and three-time Olympic medalist Will Claye finishing just behind him at 17.35 meters to finish second. Sprinters Noah Lyles and Olympian Ameer Webb went 1-2 in the men’s 200-meter, with Lyles registering a winning time of 20 seconds flat and Webb running a season-best 20.01. Turkey’s Ramil Guliyev finished in 20.02 in the tightly contested race. Lyles won the event at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China.
Olympic silver medalist Sandi Morris was second in women’s pole vault, clearing 4.75 meters.
Shakeela Saunders finished third in the women’s long jump with a best jump of 6.64 meters, just behind Great Britain’s Lorraine Ugen (6.65) and just ahead of teammates Tianna Bartoletta (6.63) and Brittney Reese (6.61). Bartoletta and Reese went 1-2 at the Rio Games last summer.
Aries Merritt was third in the men’s 110-meter hurdles, finishing in 13.20 seconds, just ahead of teammate Devon Allen (13.24). Merritt, the 2012 Olympic champion in the event, resumed his place among the world’s best this year following a kidney transplant in 2015.
Courtney Okolo finished third in the women’s 400-meter with a time of 50.91, while Natasha Hastings was fourth (50.98). Both were on the winning U.S. 4x400-meter team in Rio.
Evan Jager, the 2016 Olympic silver medalist in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, was third in the event Friday at 8:11.71, and Stanley Kipkoech Kebenei was just behind him (8:11.93).
Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
