Diamond League Final: Sha’Carri Richardson, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone each enter 2 races

Diamond League Final: Sha’Carri Richardson, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone each enter 2 races

Sha’Carri Richardson and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone are each entered in two races at the Diamond League Final in Brussels this week.

Peacock airs live coverage on Friday and Saturday from 1:53-4 p.m. ET, starting with McLaughlin-Levrone’s races. CNBC airs highlights Saturday from 12-2 p.m. and Sunday from 1-3.

In each Diamond League Final event, the winner is crowned the season champion of the Diamond League, which is track and field’s annual international circuit.

On Friday, the women’s 100m features Olympic gold medalist Julien Alfred and silver medalist Richardson. Richardson will bid to become the first American to win a Diamond League Final 100m since Carmelita Jeter in 2011.

Last Thursday, Richardson edged Alfred by four hundredths at a Diamond League meet in Zurich, Switzerland, the first meet for both since the Paris Games.

Richardson is also entered in Saturday’s 200m, part of a field that includes Olympic bronze medalist Brittany Brown.

McLaughlin-Levrone did not qualify for the Diamond League Final as she did not race any Diamond League regular season meets this year.

So the two-time Olympic 400m hurdles gold medalist, ditching the barriers, headlines an invitational 400m on Friday and invitational 200m on Saturday. Each race takes place shortly before the Diamond League Final event in those distances.

Who is competing at Diamond League Brussels?

Here are the Brussels entry lists. Here are five events to watch:

Men’s Pole Vault — Friday, 1:45 p.m. ET
Mondo Duplantis already repeated as Olympic champion and broke his world record three times this year. Now, he can become the first male pole vaulter to win Olympic gold and go undefeated in the same season in at least 60 years, according to Tilastopaja. Olympic silver and bronze medalists Sam Kendricks and Emmanouil Karalis will try to prevent that.

Women’s 400m — Friday, 1:53 p.m. ET, 2:04 p.m. ET
McLaughlin-Levrone goes first. The Final race is second, including Olympic gold medalist Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic and silver medalist Salwa Eid Naser of Bahrain. McLaughlin-Levrone’s personal best is 48.74 seconds, which is four hundredths shy of Sanya Richards-Ross’ American record. Many wonder how McLaughlin-Levrone would have fared in the Olympic flat 400m final. Paulino won gold in 48.17, making her the fourth-fastest woman in history.