By Lori Ewing
BUDAPEST, Sept 12 (Reuters) – Audrey Werro completed her rise from emerging talent to undisputed queen of the women’s 800 metres on Saturday, leading from gun to tape to claim the inaugural World Athletics Ultimate Championship title in the event and cap a remarkable undefeated season.
The 22-year-old from Switzerland outpaced Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson and the Netherlands’ Femke Broeders-Bol to cross the line in one minute 55.88 seconds, the latest chapter of a breakthrough season that has reshaped the women’s two-lap race.
Hodgkinson was second in 1:56.26, while Broeders-Bol faded to third after sitting on Werro’s right shoulder for 700 metres.
“I am just so happy with everything I’ve had and with the race I ran tonight,” Werro said. “We have won every race I have done this year during the outdoor season. It is really crazy but, at the same time, it is something I have worked for and now I am getting the result.”
Werro pocketed $150,000 for the victory, part of the event’s $10-million prize pot that is the richest in the sport.
“I do not know what I will do with the prize money, maybe I will use it to improve my career and also enjoy a little bit of it and do something I have wanted to do,” she said.
THREE-WAY RIVALRY
The women’s 800m had been one of the most anticipated events of the championship, bringing together the three athletes who have driven the distance to unprecedented levels this season.
Werro arrived in Budapest as the overwhelming favourite after a sensational campaign in which she posted 1:53.70, the third-fastest time in women’s 800 metres and the quickest recorded in 43 years.
The Swiss runner had repeatedly beaten Englishwoman Hodgkinson throughout the season, won the European title and emerged as the athlete most likely to challenge one of athletics’ most enduring records.
Saturday’s victory further strengthened that claim.
Hodgkinson, the world indoor record holder, remained firmly in contention despite an outdoor season interrupted by injury, while double world 400m hurdles champion Broeders-Bol’s remarkable first year over 800m after switching in February had added another dimension to a rivalry that has captivated the sport.
“I am actually quite proud how this race turned out to be for me,” Hodgkinson said. “This has been an incredible season, I really love to have this many competitive women competing at a really high level. Those are some amazing women, we all push each other, I enjoyed racing with them this season and I hope they enjoyed it too.
“I am happy that we managed to make the women’s 800m interesting and that everyone wants to watch it.”
The trio’s season-long battle has unfolded against the backdrop of one of the sport’s most famous and controversial records.
The women’s 800m world record of 1:53.28, set by Jarmila Kratochvilova in Munich in July 1983, remains the oldest mark on the athletics books. For more than four decades it has survived advances in training methods, sports science and technology, leading many to regard it as one of track and field’s most formidable barriers.
The record has also been cloaked in controversy. Although Kratochvilova has consistently denied using performance-enhancing drugs, her achievement came during an era when athletes from Eastern Bloc nations were linked to state-backed doping programmes and anti-doping controls were far less rigorous than today.
This season has produced the strongest challenge to the record in a generation. With Werro, Hodgkinson and Broeders-Bol all posting times that would have dominated almost any previous era, the women’s 800m has enjoyed a renaissance.
And after another victory over her leading rivals, Werro capped her season as the woman carrying the event’s greatest expectations — leaving fans to wonder whether Kratochvilova’s 43-year-old record can survive another season.
(Reporting by Lori Ewing; editing by Clare Fallon)
