Sprint stars Oblique Seville and Julien Alfred won their respective races on the opening day of the two-day Diamond League finals in Brussels on Friday.
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.
Mondo Duplantis 🇸🇪 has withdrawn from the men’s pole vault at the Brussels Diamond League after feeling tightness during warm-ups.
— Jumpers World (@jumpers_world) September 4, 2026
The world record holder has decided to scratch from the competition as a precaution. 💔
Wishing Mondo a quick recovery! 🙏 pic.twitter.com/b49YDMnio8
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.
KEBINATSHIPI SHINES
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.
"Both the win and the time are incredible, but taking home the Wanda Diamond League Trophy stands out the most," said Kebinatshipi, undefeated all season.
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 in the 3 000m steeplechase.
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.
It was the best performance since Valerie Adams's 21.24m in 2011.
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.