Audrey Werro wins Zürich Diamond League 800m in national-record 1:53.70

Audrey Werro won the Zürich Diamond League 800m in a Swiss record of 1:53.70, beating Femke Broeders-Bol and Georgia Hunter Bell on August 27. Broeders-Bol finished in 1:54.71, while Hunter Bell recorded 1:55.03 in a high-quality race on Werro’s home soil.

The result extended Werro’s dominant run over two laps since the start of June. She had already run 1:53.98 to defeat Keely Hodgkinson in Stockholm, followed by 1:53.80 against Broeders-Bol in Paris, before beating both rivals to win the European title in Birmingham.

Broeders-Bol changed her approach in Zürich after finishing just behind Werro in Lausanne, where they clocked 1:55.33 and 1:55.41. The Dutch athlete moved ahead at the 400-metre point in Zürich, reaching it in 55.74 compared with Werro’s 55.99, and the pair were almost level at 600 metres.

Werro was timed at 1:25.28 after 600 metres, just behind Broeders-Bol’s 1:25.27. She then produced the decisive acceleration with 180 metres remaining, moving past Broeders-Bol on the final bend and holding her advantage down the home straight as the home crowd backed her to the finish.

Her winning time was a Diamond League record and placed her third on the women’s 800m all-time list. Only Jarmila Kratochvílová, with 1:53.28, and Nadezhda Olizarenko, with 1:53.43, have run faster. Werro now has three of the five quickest performances in history and has broken 1:55 five times this year, including marks of 1:54.45 in Ostrava and 1:54.81 in Birmingham.

Broeders-Bol also set a Dutch record by breaking 1:55 for the first time. It was another step in her first season running the 800m after moving up from the 400m hurdles, while Hunter Bell produced her second-fastest time, behind the 1:54.90 that won her Olympic silver in Tokyo. Hunter Bell had also become European 1500m champion and Commonwealth 800m champion during the summer.