This season has witnessed an extraordinary arms race between three of the greatest female 800m runners in history. But, as so often over the summer months, it concluded with the sight of Audrey Werro going nuclear. There were some in the press seats who wondered whether the brilliant 22-year-old Swiss might be tired and vulnerable, whether Britain’s Olympic champion, Keely Hodgkinson, or the fast-rising Dutch star Femke Broeders-Bol could take advantage.
But at these Ultimate Championships in Budapest, Werro proved again she was 2026’s ultimate performer as she took the $150,000 first prize with another dominant display. Werro’s formula is simple but devastatingly effective. Run the first 200m in a shade over 27sec to take the lead, control the race like a puppet master, and then apply the squeeze in the last 300m.
As things stand, no one has an answer. She applied it perfectly here, to win in 1min 55.88sec, with Hodgkinson second in 1:56.26 and Broeders-Bol a further half a second back in third. Werro’s statistics during the outdoor season are extraordinary.
Since losing to Hodgkinson at the world indoor championships, Werro has won all 14 events she has entered, run four of the 10 fastest times in history, and took gold at the European championships. Indeed, the only time she has failed to cross the line first was when she was tripped up in the semi-finals in Birmingham. After this latest win she described her season as “really crazy” and suggested she would use her first prize to improve her training.
God help her rivals if that is truly the case. The scary thing for Hodgkinson and Broeders-Bol? Werro is 22, and only started full-time training this year after finishing her studies.
Jarmila Kratochvilova’s 43-year-old world record is already within striking distance. Would anyone be surprised if she found the 0.43 needed to topple it in 2027? However, it would be foolish to write off Hodgkinson, who confirmed that she had torn a hamstring during the European championships, which meant she was unable to do the speed work needed to compete with Werro.
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