Audrey Werro sets Lausanne meeting record in 800m as Letsile Tebogo wins 200m

Middle-distance victories for Werro and Wanyonyi

Swiss runner Audrey Werro took first place in the women's 800 metres on home soil at Stade Olympique de la Pontaise, recording a meeting record time of 1:55.33. Pacemaker Myrte van der Schoot led through the opening lap in 54.64 seconds before Werro covered a move by 18-year-old Lillian Odira at 500 metres. Femke Broeders-Bol of the Netherlands finished second with a Dutch national record of 1:55.41, eight hundredths of a second behind Werro. Ethiopia's Saida Tsehaye ran a personal best of 1:56.92 for third, while Odira faded to seventh. The result marked Werro's fifth sub-1:56 clocking in 2026 and improved Keely Hodgkinson's previous meeting mark by 0.33 seconds.

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.

In the men's 800 metres, Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi of Kenya secured his first victory over the distance in 2026, crossing the finish line in 1:42.19 after taking the lead in the final 20 metres. Algeria's Djamel Sedjati finished second in 1:42.31, with Brandon Miller of the United States taking third in 1:42.55.

I had a battle, especially over the final 100 metres, but I felt very strong and I'm happy to have won the race. My legs were beginning to tighten, but I kept pushing all the way to the finish.

Sprint finishes and injury in the 200 metres

Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo of Botswana claimed victory in the men's 200 metres with a time of 19.87 seconds, finishing 0.03 seconds outside his season best. Sinesipho Dambile of South Africa took second in 19.98 seconds, and Makanakaishe Charamba placed third in 20.14 seconds.

For me, it was all about running the curve and executing the first 150 metres, then seeing how the race developed.

In the women's 200 metres, American sprinter Kayla White took first place in 22.18 seconds. Great Britain's Amy Hunt, competing after winning four gold medals at the European Championships in Birmingham, took second place in 22.32 seconds. Hunt edged Nigeria's Favour Ofili by three-thousandths of a second in a photo finish after Ofili turned toward the stadium scoreboard near the line. Two-time world champion Shericka Jackson of Jamaica pulled up with an apparent leg injury 70 metres from the finish, while Brittany Brown did not start.

Meeting records across hurdles and field events

American hurdlers set two meeting records during the Friday programme. Masai Russell ran 12.27 seconds in the women's 100-metre hurdles, while Rai Benjamin won the men's 400-metre hurdles in 46.67 seconds, breaking Edwin Moses' meeting mark of 47.14 seconds set in 1981.

Field competition began on Thursday night with Sweden's Mondo Duplantis winning the pole vault with a meeting record clearance of 6.21 metres, finishing ahead of Greece's Emmanouil Karalis and Australia's Kurtis Marschall. In the men's triple jump, Pedro Pichardo of Portugal took victory with a jump of 17.44 metres, while European champion Andy Díaz Hernández of Italy placed third with 17.20 metres.

Late-season Diamond League schedule

The Lausanne meeting is the first of several late-season fixtures on the circuit. The Diamond League moves to Silesia, Poland, on 23 August and Zurich, Switzerland, on 27 August, where Werro, Broeders-Bol, and Hodgkinson are scheduled to race again over 800 metres. The series concludes with the Diamond League final in Brussels on 4 and 5 September ahead of the World Athletics Ultimate Championships in Budapest.