The Swiss athlete becomes the first female in history to break the 1:54 barrier for the distance on two separate occasions.

Audrey Werro might not have broken Jarmila Kratochvílová's world 800m record in Paris but she is getting closer and closer.

For decades it looked like that Kratochvílová's mark of 1:53.28 – the longest standing world record in athletics from 1983 – was just too good.

The only other woman before this year to run a sub-1:54 800m was Nadezhda Olizarenko, who clocked 1:53.43 to secure gold at the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

Werro has now achieved that feat twice, backing up her 1:53.98 winning run over Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson in Stockholm with a dominant 1:53.80 in Paris.

With the half-way split scheduled to be 55.5, it was obvious Werro wanted to target the world record. She stated in the press conference that the aim was to "follow and hang on".

Following pacemaker Myrte van der Schoot, who went through 400m in 55.35, Werro continued on and passed the 600m mark in 1:25.27, just short of the targeted split of 1:24.50.

Werro had arrived in Paris off the back of a European 600m best of 1:22.85, bettering Keely Hodgkinson's 1:23.41 indoors from 2023, so was confident with her speed endurance.

That showed in the latter stages as the Swiss athlete powered to the line in 1:53.80, meaning she now holds the third and fourth quickest marks in history.

"I'm really happy with my performance today," she said afterwards. "It was really hard to run at the pace of the world record but I was pleased with my time. I think I was a little bit late at the 600m mark, so I tried to catch up with the lights. We cannot have such a delay in the race so next time I want to stay more with the lights.

"It's way easier when I'm in the race with athletes who are as quick as me like Keely Hodgkinson for example. I think the world record will go when I am in a race with another quick athlete."

Werro confirmed after that she has no more 800m races planned before the European Athletics Championships and that she only has one more 400m before a training block ahead of Birmingham.

In a race littered with personal bests and national records, Femke Broeders-Bol – in her first season in the 800m – improved her best of 1:57.13 from Ostrava to 1:55.60. Only Werro and Hodgkinson have gone quicker this year, setting up an intriguing encounter in Birmingham in August.

Anaïs Bourgoin and Sarah Billings ran respective French and Australian records with marks of 1:55.65 and 1:57.01.

Georgia Hunter Bell is another athlete who has starred over 800m this season but she decided to run the 1500m in Paris and kicked hard for the win.

Just a week after becoming the UK 800m champion with 1:55.93 at the Alexander Stadium, the Brit battled hard down the home straight against Freweyni Hailu. The pair clocked 3:55.63 and 3:55.92 respectively.

The two 400m races also produced stunning times, with both Marileidy Paulino and Collen Kebinatshipi securing Diamond League records. Paulino produced her third quickest ever time of 48.48 to dominate over one lap, while Kebinatshipi ran an incredible 43.54 to take the win.

His mark was just outside the 43.53 he clocked to win the gold medal over one lap in Tokyo. Matthew Hudson-Smith produced a fine first 300m and went into the home straight in front, but faded and finished fourth in 44.09.

The men's 100m saw Trayvon Bromell defeat Noah Lyles. From lane eight the double world 100m bronze medallist clocked 9.91 (0.1) to see off the Paris Olympic champion. Lyles was second in 9.92 and Lamont Marcell Jacobs placed third with 9.96.

Jamall Brit delivered with one of the fastest ever 110m hurdles marks in history, overtaking Trey Cunningham late on to run a personal best of 12.89 (0.8) and go joint-eighth on the global all-time list. He also ran 12.98 in Zagreb just two days ago. Tobi Amusan also laid down a marker in the 100m hurdles by triumphing in 12.28 (0.7) against a high class field.

Marco Arop and Cameron Myers both led from the front in their respective 800m and 1500m races. The 2023 world 800m champion and Olympic silver medallist demolished the field over two laps and crossed the line in 1:41.84, the third quickest time of his career – only bettered by his 1:41.20 at the Paris Olympics and 1:41.72 in Lausanne two years ago.

Ben Pattison, who placed behind Jake Wightman in the 800m at the UK Athletics Championships, bowed down to Arop after the race in Paris, as he ran 1:43.71 for fourth. Niels Laros was rewarded with a last minute change from the 1500m to the 800m, clocking a personal best of 1:43.60 for second.

Wightman produced his fastest 1500m since winning the world title in Eugene four years ago but even his 3:29.95 wasn't enough to halt the unstoppable Myers, who set an Australian record of 3:28.00.

Grant Fisher rounded off the day on the track by securing victory in the 5000m with a strong kick, clocking 12:54.80 ahead of Jacob Krop (12:55.22) and Andreas Almgren (12:55.38). German dominance of the men's 3000m steeplechase also continued with Karl Bebendorf taking the win in 8:05.55.

In the field Mondo Duplantis was once again the highlight and, after getting married to fiancé Desiré Inglander in France last week, returned to winning ways in the pole vault with a meeting record of 6.13m. He had three attempts at a world record of 6.32m but that will have to wait.

The women's javelin was won by world under-20 champion Yan Ziyi with a best mark of 67.44m, who continued her streak on the Diamond League circuit this season.