Audrey Werro beats Keely Hodgkinson for the European 800 m title, a day after a fall
Reinstated on appeal after going down in her semi-final, the 22-year-old Swiss ran the last lap in 56.45 to win in a championship record 1:54.81.
Photograph: The women's 800 m final at the 2026 European Championships in Birmingham, by filip bossuyt, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsAudrey Werro won the women's 800 m at the European Championships in Birmingham on Friday in 1:54.81, a championship record, beating Keely Hodgkinson, the Olympic champion and defending European champion. Hodgkinson took silver in 1:55.01 and Femke Broeders-Bol of the Netherlands bronze in 1:55.54.
Werro should not have been sure of a lane. She fell in Thursday's semi-final and was only put into the final after an appeal, arguing that she had been clipped from behind. On Friday Hodgkinson went out hard and led, Werro sat on her outside shoulder, then took the race over before the bell and ran the second lap in 56.45. Hodgkinson passed Broeders-Bol and came at her around 150 m out, but the gap held.
Werro is 22 and had already run 1:53.80 in Paris in June, the third-fastest time in history. Hodgkinson, 24, was going for a third straight European title after Munich 2022 and Rome 2024. Gabija Galvydytė and Jemma Reekie were fourth and fifth, both outside 1:59.
A fall, an appeal, then the title from the front. Two laps is not long, but it has room for a whole week.
Sources: Marathon Handbook; AFP via New Straits Times; RunBlogRun.
