Neeraj Chopra, Avinash Sable spearhead Indian challenge in Diamond League season finale

Javelin throw star Neeraj Chopra will have lofty expectations to live up to, while for steeplechaser Avinash Sable, it would be an opportunity to make up for a disappointing Olympics , when star-studded Diamond League season finale begins here on Friday, featuring best of world athletics.

showpiece is spre over two days for first time and field features top athletes from all continents, including an unprecedented number of Olympic medal winners, who will be vying for top honours in 32 disciplines.

Pole vault world record holder Armand DuPlantis, American sprint queen Sha'Carri Richardson, and superstar hurdler Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone are among big names who will light up King Baudouin Stium here.

National record-holding 3000m steeplechaser Sable, after finishing 11th in Olympic Games, will be in action on Friday in his maiden appearance in DL season finale.

Chopra, who ded a silver to his Olympic medal tally in Paris following a historic gold in Tokyo Games, will be aiming to end his season on a high on Saturday.

It is for first time that a DL finale features two Indians.

Sable finished 14th in overall Diamond League standings with three points from two meetings. But four athletes ranked higher than him -- Lamecha Girma (injured) of Ethiopia, Geordie Beamish of New Zealand, Ryuji Mura of Japan and Hillary Bor of USA -- pulled out, allowing him to sneak inside top 12 cut-off.

Five meetings out of 14 in DL series across world this season h men's 3000m steeplechase event.

29-year-old Sable h finished sixth with a national record time of 8:09.91 -- bettering his own earlier mark -- in Paris leg of Diamond League on July 7. He was 14th at Silesia leg with a time of 8:29.96 on August 25.

Chopra, on or hand, me DL final cut after finishing fourth in overall standings with 14 points from his two second-place finishes in one-day meets held in Doha and Lausanne.

Each Diamond League season finale champion is awarded a 'Diamond Trophy', USD 30,000 prize money and a wild card for World Athletics Championships. runner-up gets USD 12,000.

Chopra skipped last series meet in Zurich last week.

26-year-old finished two points behind Czechia's Jakub Vlech. Grena's Anderson Peters and German star Julian Weber took top two spots with 29 and 21 points respectively.

Chopra has been struggling with his fitness this season and is expected to meet a doctor to rectify a groin injury that has affected him all season and came in way of his quest to hit 90m mark.

He h won Lausanne leg in 2022 and 2023 and finished second behind Vlejch in winner-takes-all finale in Eugene, USA, last year.