Switzerland’s Audrey Werro ran 1:53.80 in the women’s 800m at the Paris Diamond League on Sunday, the third-fastest time in history, moving within 0.52 seconds of Jarmila Kratochvílová’s 43-year-old world record. The eighth leg of the 2026 Wanda Diamond League at Stade Charléty also brought Trayvon Bromell’s one-hundredth-of-a-second win over Noah Lyles in the men’s 100m, Armand Duplantis’s pole vault return after his wedding break, and Georgia Hunter Bell’s second Diamond League 1500m of the year.
Werro Closes to Within 0.52 Seconds of a 1983 Record
Werro’s 1:53.80 came on a night she had publicly targeted for a world record run. The pacer Myrte van der Schoot led through 400m in 55.35 seconds before stepping aside, and Werro reached 600m in 1:25.27, just outside record pace. She closed with a final 200m of 28.53 seconds to stop the clock at 1:53.80, a Swiss national record, a Diamond League record, and the third-fastest women’s 800m ever run. The mark leaves her 0.52 seconds outside Kratochvílová’s 1:53.28 from 1983, the long-standing world record, per the report on her 1:53.80 in Paris. Werro is now the only athlete in history to break the 1:54 barrier for 800m more than once. She had called publicly for world record pace in Paris after her Golden Spike win in Ostrava on 16 June.
| Time | Athlete | Year |
|---|---|---|
| 1:53.28 | Jarmila Kratochvílová (TCH) | 1983 |
| 1:53.43 | Nadezhda Olizarenko (URS) | 1980 |
| 1:53.80 | Audrey Werro (SUI) | 2026 |
| 1:53.98 | Audrey Werro (SUI) | 2026 |
| 1:54.01 | Pamela Jelimo (KEN) | 2008 |
Behind Werro, Femke Broeders-Bol of the Netherlands finished second in a personal best 1:55.60, just 0.06 seconds outside Ellen van Langen’s long-standing Dutch national record. France’s Anaïs Bourgoin took third in 1:55.65, a French national record that broke Patricia Djate’s 1995 mark of 1:56.53. All ten women in the field broke two minutes.
Werro had already broken the 1:54 barrier once before Paris, clocking 1:53.98 to beat Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson at the Stockholm Diamond League on 7 June. That run made her the first woman under 1:54 in 43 years and the third-fastest in history at the time. Her Paris clocking shaved another 0.18 seconds off the Stockholm mark, and she is now the only woman in history to break 1:54 more than once. She had also won Diamond League 800m races in Rabat on 31 May and in Ostrava on 16 June. The Stockholm time put her within 0.70s of the world record; the Paris time halved that gap to 0.52s.
I was not expecting to run this fast this season. These recent performances have really given me hope and built my confidence to what is coming next.
Werro, the 22-year-old Swiss runner from Fribourg, left school this year to train full-time. She said after the race she had no plan to chase the record so soon this season, telling the post-race interview pool in Paris the attempt would have come later in her career. The 0.52-second gap to Kratochvílová’s 1983 mark is the next target, and the next Diamond League stop is the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon on 4 July. Her Stockholm time on 7 June was the first sub-1:54 by a woman since 1983; her Paris run narrowed the gap further.
A 100m Upset in Lane Eight
Trayvon Bromell beat Noah Lyles by one-hundredth of a second in the men’s 100m at the Paris Diamond League, crossing from lane eight before Lyles finished just behind him. The race, run in near-still conditions of +0.1m/s, produced five men under ten seconds. Bromell’s mark was a season’s best, and Lyles’s was his third sub-10 of 2026.
- Trayvon Bromell (USA): 9.91
- Noah Lyles (USA): 9.92
- Lamont Marcell Jacobs (ITA): 9.96
- Akani Simbine (RSA): 9.97
- Jordan Anthony (USA): 9.99
Bromell’s start was the race, and lane eight the place nobody wants. He led Lyles by seven hundredths of a second at 60m, and the Olympic champion’s top-end speed closed the gap from fifth at 60m to second by the line. ‘I really liked my start, I pushed the wheel,’ Bromell told Diamond League media post-race. ‘I know that I have so much more in my tank, the times and data from my biomechanics make me excited for the season.’ Bromell, 30, has battled back from injuries in recent years, and this is his second Diamond League win since the start of 2025. He finished second in the 60m at US Indoors in early March and took bronze at the World Indoor Championships later that month, both behind Jordan Anthony.
Hunter Bell Doubles Up in the 1500m
Georgia Hunter Bell took the women’s 1500m in 3:55.63, a season’s best that held off Ethiopia’s Freweyni Hailu (3:55.92) and France’s Agathe Guillemot (3:56.24). The Paris win was her second Diamond League 1500m of 2026 after the Rome leg last month, where she ran 3:58.63.
Hunter Bell arrived in Paris on the strength of her first world title, won over 1500m at the World Indoor Championships in Toruń in March. Her switch back to the longer distance from the 800m has produced two Diamond League wins and an indoor gold. The form build-up had stretched back through her European Indoor medal bid for Britain earlier in the winter. The 32-year-old is back in the 1500m after a season in the 800m.
Her 800m silver behind Kenya’s Lilian Odira at the Tokyo World Championships last September was her first major outdoor medal since the Paris 2024 Olympic bronze. Hunter Bell’s 800m silver behind Odira’s championship record 1:54.62 came with teammate Keely Hodgkinson taking bronze. The pair now race the same events. She turns to Glasgow in July for the Commonwealth Games and Birmingham in August for the European Championships. The Diamond League 1500m wins in consecutive months have made her a focal point for both.
Other British results from Paris included Ben Pattison’s fourth in the men’s 800m and Matthew Hudson-Smith’s fourth in the men’s 400m. Pattison was beaten by Canada’s Marco Arop, who won in 1:41.84, the fastest 800m anywhere in 2026. Hudson-Smith was beaten by Botswana’s world champion Busang Collen Kebinatshipi, who ran 43.54, a Diamond League record and one-hundredth off his own Tokyo World Championships winning time. Both British runners produced season’s bests.
Duplantis Returns After His Wedding Break
Armand Duplantis cleared a meeting record 6.13m to win the pole vault, finishing comfortably clear of France’s Baptiste Thierry, who took second with a personal best 5.93m. The 26-year-old then took three unsuccessful attempts at 6.32m. His world record of 6.31m, set at his own indoor gala in Uppsala in March, stood.
The Paris win was Duplantis’s first since losing to Australia’s Kurtis Marschall at the Stockholm Diamond League on 7 June, his first defeat in 40 meetings. He sat out the Oslo Diamond League on 10 June and the Doha meeting on Midsummer’s Eve while celebrating his wedding. The couple, Armand Duplantis and Desiré Inglander, had married at Stockholm City Hall in March, and the three-day celebration was held that week on the French Riviera. ‘I was out of my mind,’ Duplantis said of the wedding, referring to his thoughts about the celebration. The Stockholm loss had been the first in three years.
I’m pretty happy. I feel good. I felt very hungry before the competition and wanted to make a little statement. I think it will be 6.32 very soon.
Duplantis, the Swedish world record holder, told SVT in Paris he was happy with the meeting and ready for more. The next Diamond League stop is the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon on 4 July, where he will continue his chase of the world record. His world record of 6.31m was set in March at his indoor gala in Uppsala.
A Card Squeezed by the Heat
Local police asked for all sporting events in Paris to be called off this week because of the extreme heat, and only professional competitions ran. Athletics-club meets and regional championships were cancelled.
Marileidy Paulino ran the fastest women’s 400m of 2026, winning in 48.48 seconds, a world lead and her ninth sub-49 clocking. Australia’s 20-year-old Cam Myers took the men’s 1500m in 3:28.00, an Oceanic record and his first Diamond League win. Both races went largely under the radar of the headline events but deepened a card built around Werro’s record chase and the 100m and 1500m finals. Samuel Ogazi’s 43.38 from the NCAA finals in May is the only faster 400m run anywhere this year.
The Prefontaine Classic on 4 July, the annual American leg of the Diamond League in Eugene, Oregon, is the next stop. Werro has said her recent performances have given her ‘hope’ for what is coming next. Bromell told media in Paris he would ‘go nuts’ at the Prefontaine. Duplantis said he expects 6.32m ‘very soon.’ The Diamond League calendar resumes in the United States on Independence Day weekend.
Kratochvílová’s 1983 record still stands. Werro’s only 2026 800m defeat came at the World Indoor final. The next stop is the Prefontaine Classic.
