Switzerland’s Werro wins European 800m title

Audrey Werro stormed to the 800-metre title by holding off Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson down the home straight at the European championships on Friday. Keystone / Cyril Zingaro

Switzerland’s Audrey Werro held off Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson to win the 800 metres title at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham on Friday, just a day after a heavy fall in the semi-finals.

The 22-year-old from Fribourg pulled clear of Britain’s Hodgkinson over the final 150 metres to cross the line in 1:54.81 and claim her first major elite title. Hodgkinson took silver in 1:55.01, while Dutch athlete Femke Bol-Broeders finished third in 1:55.54.

The eagerly anticipated race, billed by some observers as the “race of the year”, brought together three of the sport’s biggest names. Werro entered the final with the third-fastest time in history, Hodgkinson as Olympic champion and two-time European champion, and Bol-Broeders as a two-time world champion over the 400m hurdles.

It was the first time the trio had competed against each other in the same race. Attention was also focused on the possibility of a challenge to Jarmila Kratochvílová’s 43-year-old world record of 1:53.28, the oldest in athletics.

Werro’s triumph capped a remarkable recovery from Thursday’s semi-final, in which she crashed to the track and finished last. She was later reinstated after officials ruled that France’s Anaïs Bourgoin had clipped her right foot before the fall.

Starting in lane nine on Friday, Werro took control of the race from the outset. Under pressure from Hodgkinson throughout, she increased the pace with 300 metres remaining and reached halfway in 56.45 seconds, quicker than the split recorded by Kratochvílová during her world-record run.

She held off a late challenge from Hodgkinson to claim her first major elite title. Valentina Rosamilia from canton Aargau finished seventh in 1:59.42 and Veronica Vancardo from Fribourg eighth in 2:00.17.

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Translated from French, reviewed by an English Department journalist.