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The 800m European women’s final we all hoped for delivered as Switzerland’s Audrey Werro led from the front to win a classic for the ages. But it was a close run thing as Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson pushed her all the way to take silver.
However Werro proved too strong as she came through in a championship record 1:54.81sec. Just behind her was Hodgkinson, who ran 1:55:01 to take silver. Femke Broeders-Bol took bronze in 1:55.54.
“I am really happy with this medal after a crazy 24 hours,” said Werro, who beat Hodgkinson by about three metres. “It was a great race,” said Hodgkinson. “I am sure there will be many more battles ahead. But I think I would have been happier with gold.”
Hodgkinson was attempting to complete a European Championship hat-trick after golds in 2022 and 2024.
As those in the press box discussed their likely 1-2-3s beforehand, there were coherent advocates for all six potential permutations. But cracking the enigma code was easier than getting agreement on what would happen when the big three of Hodgkinson, Werro and Broeders-Bol met for the first time.
Naturally Hodgkinson had plenty of supporters. She was the Paris Olympic champion, after all. And she was on home turf. In the winter she had also broken the world indoor record and then won the world indoor title in March.
But that was before her fateful meeting with Werro in Stockholm in June, where she had suffered a shock – and comprehensive – defeat. Werro was considered the favourite by the bookies. Especially as she had run the third, fourth and ninth fastest times in history since June. The only doubt? How would a cut on her knee from a heavy fall in the semi-finals affect her?
And then there was the giant curveball: Broeders-Bol, the double world 400m hurdles champion whose 49.17sec personal best for 400m is an indoor world record, who was running in her first 800m championship final.
It was Sebastian Coe, the president of World Athletics, who first suggested to Broeders-Bol that she was a natural 80om runner a few years ago. Her first instinct was to recoil in horror. Her second was to avoid Coe for years. It was only after the Dutch athlete won the world 400m hurdles title again last year that she decided to give it a whirl.
It made for a highly anticipated final, with the three fastest women in the world this year lining up together. And it certainly didn’t disappoint.
Earlier in the night, Norway’s Karsten Warholm ran a championship record to storm to gold in the men’s 400m hurdles. The world record-holder’s time of 46.63sec was some performance on a windy night and a slow Alexander Stadium track. The victory was his fourth European title at the event. Germany’s Emil Agyekum was more than a second back in silver, while Turkey’s Ismail Nezir took bronze.
Nadia Battocletti added the European 10,000m title to her 5,000m crown with a devastating 28-second sprint over the final 200m. That took the Italian to victory in 31:41.20, four seconds clear of Maureen Koster of the Netherlands, with Belgium’s Jana Van Lent winning bronze. Britain’s Megan Keith ran bravely from the front but she emptied out with two laps to go and finished eighth.
There was little joy either for Katarina Johnson-Thompson in the women’s heptathlon. The 33-year-old won bronze in the world championships last year but was clearly hampered by a calf niggle that led to her missing the Commonwealth Games, ending day one in 16th place.
Johnson-Thompson started poorly and her time in the 100m hurdles of 14-seconds flat was her slowest ever in a major championship. And while things picked up with a 1.83m clearance in the high jump, she was already behind where she needed to be.
Sadly Johnson-Thompson’s performance was to get no better. A shot put of 12.79m was also below par and she could only run 24.46sec in the 200m, the final event of day one.
That left her on just 3644 points – and a long way behind the leader Adrianna Sulek-Schubert of Poland on 3968, with Sofie Dokter of the Netherlands and Kate O’Connor of Ireland close behind her.
In the men’s 200m, Britain’s Zharnel Hughes had to settle for silver behind Germany’s Owen Ansah, who powered to victory in 19.95sec. Hughes had a time of 20.16sec, while there was a rare dead heat for bronze between Italy’s Eseosa Fostine Desalu and Switzerland’s Timothe Mumenthaler, who both ran 20.26.
However Ansah’s gold medal was instantly controversial given that last week Germany’s National Anti-Doping Agency recommended that Ansah should receive a four-year suspension over a possible anti-doping violation. The German authorities claim that is because Ansah missed a test in July. Ansah disputes this. But the case continues.
