Seville holds off Eseme, Ajayi for 100m title triumph: “I want to dominate next season”

World No. 1 Oblique Seville sprinted to the men’s 100 metres 2026 Diamond League Final title on Friday (4 September) in Brussels, holding off a strong field that included a challenger that had topped him twice earlier in the season.

The Jamaican Seville clocked a 9.90 ahead of 2026 Commonwealth Games winner Emmanuel Eseme’s 9.93. Nigerian newcomer Kayinsola Ajayi, who had looked to best Seville for a third time in 2026, rounded out the podium in third with a time of 9.97.

“It means a lot because this is my first Diamond League title,” Seville told Olympics.com. “Each competitor pushed me to go to the line. I am happy for the win.”

The race got off to a rocky start with what appeared to be a false start from American Trayvon Bromell. He was later cleared and the race went off smoothly on the second attempt.

The USA’s Christian Coleman, the 2019 100m world champion, led near the halfway mark, looking strong before fading to sixth and a time of 10.01.

Australia’s Lachlan Kennedy (9.99) and South Africa’s Gift Leotlela (10.01) finished fourth and fifth respectively.

Seville was satisfied with his win – and his season overall – but felt his start had been lacklustre.

“My start was far from the best, but the aim is always to win so I won’t complain,” he said afterwards. “I didn’t change too much after becoming a world champion. What I was doing clearly worked and this season is further proof of that.

“Next season, I want to extend my title and dominate the Diamond League,” he concluded.

The reigning Olympic champ and world leader, American Noah Lyles, who posted a 9.79 at July’s U.S. championships, was not in the field and announced on Friday that he is ending his 2026 season due to injury.

Emmanuel Eseme upsets expected rivalry: “The hard work paid off”

The men’s 100m in 2026 had kept coming back to Seville and Ajayi.

Seville, the world champion, was the fastest in the field at 9.82, a winner in Monaco and Silesia and the Jamaican champion. Ahead of Brussels, he was the man to beat. But Ajayi owned the head-to-head this season.

The 21-year-old beat Seville at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene in July, running 9.84. Two weeks later, in London, he did it again – another 9.84, with Seville back in 9.87.

“That is what I do,” Ajayi said after his win in Eugene.

Seville was determined to get the better of his rival in the series finale.

“There are great things ahead of me,” he told the Jamaica Observer. “For the rest of the season I would like to keep winning, and the next win should be in Brussels.”

Brussels was to be the rematch, but Eseme had something to say about that, pushing into the top two. It’s part of a remarkable summer for the 33-year-old. In July, he won Commonwealth Games gold in 9.83, a Games and national record.

“I really wanted to win tonight, but to be honest I’m also happy with second place and 9.93 in this field,” said Eseme. “Together with my coach I’ve worked really hard on my acceleration and the hard work paid off.”

Julien Alfred won the women’s race, but the evening’s entertainment was mired by the withdrawal of Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis with a tightness in his leg that had resurfaced at last week’s meet in Zurich.

“I pushed through it, probably a little bit too much. I said that if I felt this irritation during my warm-up, I wasn’t going to jump,” the US-born Swede said.

Duplantis admitted he was not certain to make the inaugural season-ending World Athletics Ultimate Championship in Budapest next week.

“I don’t have the answer right now,” he said on whether he would be fit enough to compete in Hungary where there will be a prize money pot of $10 million.

To make Duplantis’s night even worse, Greek rival Emmanouil Karalis won the pole vault with a meet record of 6.12m, beating by 1cm the previous best set by the Swede in 2024.

Back on the track, world 100m champion Seville overcame a poor start to win the blue riband race in 9.90sec ahead of Cameroon’s Emmanuel Eseme.

The Jamaican left it late to reel in the field, but looked comfortable as he crossed the line.

“My start was far from the best, but the aim is always to win so I won’t complain,” said Seville.

“I didn’t change too much after becoming a world champion. What I was doing clearly worked and this season is further proof of that. Next season I want to extend my title and dominate the Diamond League.”

St Lucia’s Olympic champion Alfred made short work of the women’s 200m, winning in 21.79sec ahead of American Kayla White.

In a night of six meeting records, the most impressive was arguably set by Botswana’s world champion Busang Collen Kebinatshipi, who scorched to an impressive 43.40sec in the 400m.

It was the joint fifth fastest time ever run over the one-lap race, smashing by 0.23sec the previous best set in 2021 by American Michael Cherry, as the top four all posted sub-44sec times.

Trinidad and Tobago’s Jereem Richards set a national record in second ahead of the US pair of Jacory Patterson and Chris Bailey, both in personal bests.

Not to be outdone, Kenya’s world and Olympic 800m champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi won his fourth consecutive Diamond League title with victory in 1:41.80, smashing by 0.40sec the meet record set by Denmark’s Wilson Kipketer in 1997.

“Today was all about winning and I knew that I would have to run 1:41 to win and I did,” said Wanyonyi.

There was a second Kenyan meeting record, this time by Faith Cherotich, who won her third Diamond League title in a row in 8:51.61.

Australian Cameron Myers came out top of a loaded 1,500m, winning in 3:30.14 as Norwegian wildcard Jakob Ingebrigtsen cracked down the home straight to end up fifth.

American Chase Jackson also set a new area, meet and Diamond League record in winning the women’s shot with 21.14m an improvement of 12cm on her personal best.

Jackson’s teammate and world record holder Ja’Kobe Tharp, still just 20, stormed to victory in the 110m hurdles in 13.03sec.

Jamaica’s Tajay Gayle went out to a season’s best of 8.46m to edge Greek’s Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglu by 6cm in the long jump, while Slovenia’s Kristjan Ceh managed a meet record of 71.29m to outgun Mykolas Alekna in the men’s discus.

American Valarie Sion’s five-year title-winning discus streak came to an end, however, as Feng Bin managed a best of 67.46m to become the first Chinese athlete to be crowned Diamond League champion since 2019.