Werro leads European champions into Lausanne as Hunt targets Diamond League

Audrey Werro and Amy Hunt headline Athletissima in Lausanne on Friday, with the meeting bringing together nine Olympic champions, 11 world champions and 14 European champions. The event follows the European Championships in Birmingham, where both athletes produced major performances.

Hunt arrives in Switzerland after winning four European titles. She claimed the 100 metres, 200m, women’s 4x100m and mixed 4x100m, with the mixed relay victory producing a European record. She will contest the women’s 200m against Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson, American Brittany Brown and Nigeria’s Favour Ofili.

Werro will compete in the 800m after overcoming a dramatic start to her Birmingham campaign. She fell and was reinstated before winning the European title in championship-record time. Her Lausanne race includes Femke Broeders-Bol, who took bronze in Birmingham, and Kenya’s world champion Lilian Odira. The field also brings renewed attention to Jarmila Kratochvílová’s 43-year-old world record of 1:53.28.

The meeting gives Switzerland’s recent European medallists a chance to compete on home soil. Werro, pole vault champion Angelica Moser and 110m hurdles winner Jason Joseph are all listed among the athletes capable of challenging for victory. Moser will face Olympic champion Nina Kennedy, while long jump silver medallist Simon Ehammer meets European champion Miltiadis Tentoglou.

Other leading entries include Dominic Lobalu in the 5000m and Andy Díaz Hernández in the triple jump. Díaz Hernández produced an 18.15-metre effort in Birmingham, making him the fourth-best performer in history and putting Jonathan Edwards’ 18.29m world record within the wider discussion. The men’s 800m features Emmanuel Wanyonyi, Marco Arop and Brandon Miller, while Letsile Tebogo and Britain’s Zharnel Hughes are among the names in the men’s 200m.

Diamond League final qualification adds importance to the men’s 5000m, where Birhanu Balew, Graham Blanks, Grant Fisher, Parker Wolfe and Mathew Kipsang all enter after breaking 12:50 this season. Bahrain’s Winfred Yavi leads the women’s 3000m steeplechase field, which also includes European champion Gesa Krause and Britain’s Elise Thorner. The sold-out meeting begins after a Thursday lakeside event featuring Mondo Duplantis, Emmanouil Karalis and Sam Kendricks in the pole vault.