Werro survives Broeders-Bol scare to seal Lausanne 800m
Audrey Werro held off a fast-closing Femke Broeders-Bol to win the Lausanne Diamond League 800m in a meeting record, with the pair now set to clash with Keely Hodgkinson, Georgia Hunter Bell and Lilian Odira in Zurich next week.
Audrey Werro was unstoppable at the European Championships in Birmingham last week and here, at the Diamond League on home soil in Lausanne on Friday (Aug 21), she was always going to be tough to beat.
Femke Broeders-Bol came close to an upset, though, as the former hurdler made up a deficit of a couple of metres with a big home straight surge to almost catch Werro on the line.
Werro clocked a meet record of 1:55.33 with Broeders-Bol, who looks better every time she tackles 800m, breaking Ellen van Langen's Dutch record with 1:55.41.
The two athletes embraced each other with a smile immediately after finishing but Werro will no doubt be a little worried that Broeders-Bol pushed her so close. The two will race again, too, in an even bigger 800m showdown with Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson, European 1500m champion Georgia Hunter Bell and world 800m gold medallist Lilian Odira in Zurich in a week's time.
In third, meanwhile, Saida Tsehaye, who turned 18 last month, clocked an impressive 1:56.92 in this ever-evolving event.
Werro said: "I really enjoyed the race, especially with all the fans who came to support me. The turnaround after the European Championships was very short, so I had to recover quickly and I felt more tired than usual today. Despite that I managed to win, so I'm very happy."
Broeders-Bol said: "I'm very happy and proud, this was a great race after the European Championships. I'm not happy that I let someone pass me while I was still feeling good (Tsehaye down the back straight) but that is something I needed to learn and I learned it through experience today.
"The Europeans gave me confidence and this race gives me even more confidence that I belong with the best. I need to trust myself, keep pushing after 500 metres, stop protecting myself too much and simply enjoy racing."
The men's 800m was also a great race as Emmanuel Wanyonyi, the Olympic champion from Kenya, finished strongly to clock 1:42.19 as he held off Djamel Sedjati of Algeria (1:42.31).
Marco Arop of Canada had boldly followed the pacemaker through 400m in 48.86 but paid for it in the home straight as he faded to fourth in 1:43.18 with Brandon Miller of the United States (1:42.55) also passing him.
Amy Hunt's visit to Lausanne to take on some of the best sprinters in the world at 200m following her four gold medals at the European Championships was highly anticipated. But the story of the race was Shericka Jackson, the second-fastest woman in history over 200m, pulled up sharply with injury as the runners came into the home straight.
Kayla White of the United States remained unfazed as she went on to win her first-ever Diamond League race in 22.18 (0.3) in the cool overcast conditions, as Hunt snatched second place from Favour Ofili of Nigeria – the two women given the same time of 22.32.
Another Europe versus Rest of the World match-up came in the women's 100m hurdles with Masai Russell of the United States clocking a meet record of 12.27 (-0.2) ahead of Nadine Visser, the champion in Birmingham last week, who clocked 12.42 here.
Emma Zapletalová continued her domination of the women's 400m hurdles this summer with her fifth Diamond League win of 2026, her 52.41 being the second-fastest time in the world this year.
Birhanu Balew of Bahrain showed his rivals a clean pair of heels in the men's 5000m as he eased clear in the final 200m to win in 12:57.55. Behind, there was a big scrap between Americans for the minor places with Parker Wolfe second in 12:58.20, Nico Young third in 12:58.33 and Graham Blanks fourth in 12:59.16. US record-holder Grant Fisher, meanwhile, was back in 11th in 13:07.74.
In the men's 400m hurdles Rai Benjamin won his first race of the year with a superb 46.67, breaking Ed Moses' 47.14 meet record from 1981 and beating the rest of the field by well over a second.
Winfred Yavi of Bahrain also set a meet record, this time in the 3000m steeplechase, of 9:00.04 as Britain's Elise Thorner clocked 9:18.29 in eighth with European champion Gesa Krause a DNF.
The 200m saw Letsile Tebogo of Botswana win with 19.87 (-0.3) as Britain's Zharnel Hughes was fifth with 20.33.
In the field, Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage of Sri Lanka threw 88.14m in the javelin to beat Neeraj Chopra of India by 9cm, while in the women's event Haruka Kitaguchi of Japan threw a season's best of 64.90m to win.
The men's triple jump saw Pedro Pichardo of Portugal win with 17.44m (-1.0) as European champion Andy Díaz Hernández was third.
Miltos Tentoglou of Greece won the men's long jump with 8.24m (2.1) as Simon Ehammer of Switzerland was runner-up with 8.13m (1.3).
Hana Moll of the United States jumped 4.84m to win the women's pole vault ahead of European champion Angelica Moser of Switzerland, who cleared 4.74m.
The previous evening saw Mondo Duplantis win the city-centre pole vault competition in front of a 5000-strong crowd with a best of 6.21m as Emmanouil Karalis was runner-up with 6.16m.
