Music: {allcanada} A league of her own

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- After a long and successful season, Canadian hurdler Priscilla Lopes-Schliep can finally indulge and eat the cupcakes she couldn't enjoy on her birthday.

She's earned it.

Lopes-Schliep, of Whitby, Ont., won the Diamond League title in the season finale Friday, taking top spot in the women's 100-metre hurdles with a time of 12.54 seconds.

Lopes-Schliep, who turned 28 a day earlier, earned US$40,000 for the victory along with a four-carat diamond worth twice that amount.

The win at the Memorial Van Damme meet moved her eight points ahead of American Lolo Jones, who entered the race tied with the Canadian in the points standings.

"Season's done," Lopes-Schliep said. "I can have some dessert now."

Lopes-Schliep finished just ahead of Australia's Sally Pearson, who was second in 12.64 in chilly, damp conditions at the King Baudouin track.

"I guess that's what you get," Lopes-Schliep said with a laugh. "You're used to the Canadian weather so it's kind of an advantage."

Perdita Felicien of Pickering, Ont., was third in 12.68 while Jones was fifth in 12.78. Lopes-Schliep said she was able to recover after a bad start.

"I definitely had a very strong finish," she told The Canadian Press in a phone interview from Brussels. "So I'm very pleased with the overall outcome."

The Canadian, who won Olympic bronze in 2008, finished the Diamond League race with 22 points. Jones had 14, Pearson was third with 10 and Felicien was fourth with five points.

Lopes-Schliep said she got a boost from the sellout crowd of 47,000.

"Great turnout, great atmosphere, I definitely fed off of that," she said. "Overall I had a pretty good night."

Lopes-Schliep received a large Diamond League trophy after the win. She'll receive the actual diamond in the near future.

"My uncle is a jeweller," she said. "I'll talk to him and see if he can help me with some ideas, either I can make a necklace or a ring. I don't know, we'll see. But I'm not in a rush.

"I've got to put some thought into it because it's very special and something I've worked very, very hard for."

Lopes-Schliep said it was her final race until next year, when she'll focus on the world championships and eventually the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

"It's a health issue," she said of taking a pass on this year's fall events. "Just to make sure I stay healthy and get ready for the next season."

Meanwhile, in the men's shot put, Dylan Armstrong of Kamloops, B.C., settled for fourth with a throw of 20.87 metres.

Reese Hoffa finished first with a distance of 22.16, over a half-metre ahead of fellow American Christian Cantwell, who was second in 21.62. Tomasz Majewski of Poland was third in 21.34.

Cantwell took the overall title with 25 points. Hoffa was second with 14 points and Majewski was third with seven points, one more than Armstrong.

American Tyson Gay won the 100 metres in 9.79 seconds, but only after a false start scare.

The runners were called back after the first start, and there were whispers in the crowd that Gay may have been the offender and could be expelled from the race.

"I didn't false start, but the camera zoomed in on me. That put me off a bit," Gay said.

Gay was slow out of the blocks on the second attempt and had to work hard most of the race to get ahead of Jamaican Nesta Carter, whose 9.85 was a personal best. Another Jamaican, Yohan Blake, was third in 9.91.

World record-holder Usain Bolt did not compete due to a back injury. Gay was expected to have only the clock to beat, but Carter was still leading after 60 metres.

Under pressure, Gay kept a cool head and forged ahead for the win.

One week after taking the 400-metre title at the Weltklasse meet in Zurich, Allyson Felix added the 200 at the Van Damme to become the only double Diamond League trophy winner in the competition's inaugural season.

She had a time of 22.61, holding off American compatriot Shalonda Solomon by 0.09 seconds.

"I was a little stiff," Felix said. "I had hoped for a better time. I looked down at my legs and they were purple but it was a lot of fun."

Janeth Jepkosgei of Kenya won the 800-metre trophy, leaving South Africa's Caster Semenya third in the race.

Jepkosgei, the 2007 world champion, took the lead in the final straight and finished in one minute 58.82 seconds, beating Russian Mariya Savinova by 0.67 seconds.

Semenya ran in her first Diamond League race after she won in Berlin on Sunday, her first major 800 victory since gender tests kept the world champion off the track for 11 months.

She hung back in the pack for most of the race and only charged in the final straightaway to finish with a personal best this season of 1:59.65.

Still, her agent Jukka Harkonen was pleased with the race.

"She ran a little bit faster than in Berlin and it was a very competitive race. If everything is going well, Caster will compete at the Commonwealth Games."

The Oct. 3-14 Games in New Delhi, India, will be her biggest event since winning the world title last year.

In the men's 800, David Rudisha could not match his world record performance of last Sunday but still produced the kick to hold off his main rival Abubaker Kaki of Sudan. The Kenyan was 2.41 seconds off his record pace, but it was enough to win the overall trophy ahead of Kaki.