Fresh from his massive 72.01m effort to win the men’s discus throw and break the national record at last Saturday’s Oklahoma Throws Series, Jamaican Ralford Mullings is down to feature in today’s Allianz Memorial Van Damme.

The event in Brussels, Belgium, is the penultimate stop in the Wanda Diamond League series ahead of next week’s two-day finale in Zurich, Switzerland.

Mullings, set to make his Diamond League debut, won the NCAA outdoor and the Jamaica senior athletics championships titles this year. A finalist at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, he is ranked fourth in the world after his monster throw last weekend.

World record holder Mykolas Alekna of Lithuania, Matthew Dennis of Australia and Kristjan Ceh of Slovenia are the only men ranked ahead of the Jamaican.

Mullings, 22, smashed the national record of 70.78m set by Fedrick Dacres six years ago and passed his previous best of 69.67m to climb to eighth best of all time.

He is one of eight Jamaicans set to compete at the meet. Among them, women’s triple jumper Shanieka Ricketts, women’s 400m hurdler Andrenette Knight, and men’s high jumper Romaine Beckford, have already secured spots in next week’s final.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is to contest the women’s 100m, while Ackelia Smith is listed for the women’s triple jump, Danniel Thomas-Dodd is to compete in the women’s shot put, and Antonio Watson is part of an invitational men’s 400m race.

Ricketts, who leads the Diamond League points table, is ranked fourth in the world. She is to take on the top three jumpers in the world — the Cuban pair of Leyanis Perez-Hernandez and Liadagamis Povea, who are rated first and second, respectively, and third-ranked American Jasmine Moore. Olympic Games and World Indoor champion Thea Lafond of Dominica is also down to compete. Smith will be seeking enough points in Brussels to earn her a place into next week’s high-stakes final.

Knight, who last raced in mid-July when she finished third in London, is hoping for a podium finish as she takes on American Anna Cockrell, Gianna Woodruff of Panama, Ayomide Folorunso of Italy and Naomi van den Broeck of Belgium.

Beckford will seek to get the better of the likes of New Zealand’s Hamish Kerr, American Shelby McEwen and Oleh Doroshchuk of Ukraine.

Fraser-Pryce, who competed in Budapest just over a week ago — her first outing since the national championships, will hope for a positive outcome when she lines up against world leader and race favourite Melissa Jefferson-Wooden of the United States.

Thomas-Dodd will also be seeking a spot in next week’s final in the women’s shot put when she faces some of the best in the world, including Chase Jackson of the USA, Jessica Schilder of the Netherlands, Sarah Mitton of Canada, and Yemisi Ogunleye of Germany. All four are presently ranked in the top five in the world.

Watson, who will be racing for the third time in the two weeks, is to face two top Belgians in the invitational race — Dylan Borlee and Jonathan Sacoor.

— Paul A Reid