In Belgium, the Covid Safe Ticket is required for all events with more than 5000 people and for every person older than 12 years. The Ticket guarantees that spectators don’t need to wear masks and that social distancing is not necessary. In and around the stadium catering stations will be open ! The Covid Safe Ticket means that spectators need to prove full vaccination at least 2 weeks ahead of the event, or a recovery certificate from a former infection or a recent negative PCR-test. For Belgian citizens the QR code in the CovidSafeBE app will be scanned, together with the ID-card.
Olympic celebration
The 45th Allianz Memorial Van Damme is held in the aftermath of the Tokyo Olympic Games. During the Opening Ceremony all Belgian Olympic Medal winners will be honoured as well as all Belgian Top 8 finishers. The National Lottery will hand over the Prize Money. The entire Olympic Team Belgium will attend the meeting and make a lap of honour at the closure of the meeting. They will do so while Regi and Mademoiselle Luna are playing and singing live “Now’s the time”, the official anthem of the Olympic Team Belgium for the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Another celebration will be the introduction of Mike Powell and Blanka Vlasic in the Hall of Fame of the Allianz Memorial Van Damme. The American Long Jumper holds the World Record for 30 years now and registered 7 victories at the meeting. The Croatian High Jumper won two World titles and scored three wins in Brussels.
Top field of Olympic medal winners
The Allianz Memorial Van Damme is the second to last leg of the Wanda Diamond League, the circuit of the World’s biggest meetings. The usual World Class field is an Olympic and World Class field this time. No less than 30 Olympic Medal winners – who won 36 medals in total - will be part of the action. Elaine Thompson-Herah (3 gold medals) and Sifan Hassan (2 gold, 1 bronze medal) will also make their appearance. Thompson-Herah will race in the 200m against the 18 year old rising Nambian super talent Christine Mboma, who took silver at the Olympics.
Other superstars to look forward to on Sep.,3rd are, amongst others, Karsten Warholm (400m Hurdles, who set a phenomenal Wordl Record in Tokyo), Mondo Duplantis (a living Pole Vault legend at the age of 21 years only) and … Nafi Thiam ! The Olympic Heptathlon Champion competes in the High Jump, where Mariya Lasitskene heads the field.
Discus Throwing in the woods
The Allianz Memorial Van Damme takes off on Wednesday Sep.,1st with an “urban” Discus Throw event in the woods of La Cambre. Sweden’s gold and silver medallists Daniel Stahl and Simon Pettersson take on the challenge from a class field. In the Women’s event the Olympic Top 3 finishers are leading the action : Valarie Allman, Kristin Pudenz and Yaime Perez. In the preprogram a Discus Throwing clinic, led by Jo Van Daele and Rutger Smith, will be organised by the Lotto Coach Academy. On Thursday Mike Powell will host a Long Jump clinic on the site of the stadium.
First edition with title partner Allianz
The Allianz Memorial Van Damme celebrates its 45th edition already, this time with Allianz as the title partner. Allianz has also decided to support Belgian Athletics on different levels : from national and regional federations to individual athletes. Some of them have become ambassadors of Allianz : the Belgian Cheetahs, Rani Rosius, Olympic Champion Kim Gevaert and Paralympic Champion Peter Genyn are some of them.
In the preprogram of the 45th Allianz Memorial Van Damme a paralympic youth competition, the Marieke Vervoort Cup, will be held for the first time.
30 athletes who won 36 Olympic Medals in total to be in action at the Allianz Memorial Van Damme:
• Elaine Thompson (gold 100 meter, gold 200 meter, gold 4x100 meter)
• Sifan Hassan (gold 5000 meter, gold 10.000 meter, bronze 1500 meter)
• Nafi Thiam (gold Heptathlon; competes in the High Jump in Brussels)
• Mariya Lasitskene (gold High Jump)
• Nicola McDermott (silver High Jump)
• Yaroslava Mahuchikh (bronze High Jump)
• Mondo Duplantis (gold Pole Vault)
• Chris Nilsen (silver Pole Vault)
• Karsten Warholm (gold 400 meter Hurdles)
• Alison dos Santos (bronze 400 meter Hurdles)
• Jakob Ingebrigtsen (gold 1500 meter)
• Daniel Stahl (gold Discus Throw)
• Simon Petterson (silver Discus Throw)
• Valarie Allman (gold Discus Throw)
• Kristin Pudenz (silver Discus Throw)
• Yaime Perez (bronze Discus Throw)
• Jasmine Camacho-Quinn (gold 100 meter Hurdles)
• Megan Tapper (bronze 100 meter Hurdles)
• Shericka Jackson (gold 4x100 meter, bronze 100 meter, bronze 4x400 meter; competes in the 200 meter in Brussels)
• Dina Asher-Smith (bronze 4x100 meter; competes in the 200 meter in Brussels)
• Christine Mboma (silver 200 meter)
• Keely Hodgkinson (silver 800 meter)
• Laura Muir (silver 1500 meter; competes in the Mile in Brussels)
• Hellen Obiri (silver 5000 meter)
• Letensebet Gidey (bronze 10.000 meter; competes in the 5000 meter in Brussels)
• Kirani James (bronze 400 meter)
• Fred Kerley (silver 100 meter)
• Michael Norman (gold 4x400 meter; competes in the 100 meter in Brussels)
• Michael Cherry (gold 4x400 meter; competes in the 400 meter in Brussels)
• Liemarvin Bonevacia (silver 4x400 meter; competes in the 400 meter in Brussels)
