24/08/2001 – For the first time in his history the Van Damme got the number one spot in the IAAF ranking based on the 72 best performances during the meet, beating even Zürich’s Weltklasse. A fine reward as the meeting not only produced fast times, but also thrilling competition in the presence of the Belgian King and Queen.

Brahim Boulami became the big star of the warm but windless evening. Not only did he defeat the Kenyans in ‘their’ event, the 3.000m steeple, he also broke the world record by running 7.55.28. World champion Ruben Kosgei finished second in 7.57.29.

The 1.500m was another highlight with a duel between Hicham El Guerrouj and Bernard Lagat. The Moroccan ran 3.26.12 and only missed his world record by 12/100s, while the Kenyan became the second fastest of all time with 3.26.34; 12(!) athletes bettered 3.34 in this race.

In the 200m Joshua Johnson surprised by producing a world leading 19.88, as well as a new meeting record from lane 9. The old one belonged with 19.89 to Michael Johnson, who said farewell to the crowd with a lap of honour. Another world leading time resulted from a tremendous 3.000m won by the Ethiopian Hailu Mekkonen in 7.30.53. But the most stunning race was brought by world champion André Bucher and Yuriy Borzakowsky in the 800m. Bucher had a comfortable lead coming into the home straight, but the young Russian stormed to the finish in a new national record of 1.42.27.

The standard of the meeting was so high that victories of Tim Montgomery (100m in 9.96), Anier Garcia (110m hurdles in 13.07) or Jan Zelezny (85m54 with the javelin) were classified as ‘not bad’.

Marion Jones dominated the 100m in 10.86 and made sure to be one of the winners of the jackpot. Violeta Szekely won her sixth 1.500m of this year’s Golden League. Stephanie Graf beat Maria Mutola in the 800 and the contested Olga Yegorova was the best in the 3.000m.