Which is why my eyebrow was also raised about Keely initially. Her progression since then has been much more incremental. It's very unusual to get successive years of substantial improvement. One year of huge improvement is very common amongst junior athletes.
Which is why my eyebrow was also raised about Keely initially. Her progression since then has been much more incremental. It's very unusual to get successive years of substantial improvement. One year of huge improvement is very common amongst junior athletes.
Bicarb can probably help explain Werro's 2025 improvement. Being done with school can probably help explain this year's improvement. Plus maturation from 20 to 22.
What's crazy is that before today, Werro was below SHK on the all time list. She jumped from there to #3 all time in one race.
32 1:55.89 Sage HURTA-KLECKER 23 JUN 1998 USAUSA 5 National Stadium, Tokyo (JPN) 21 SEP 2025 1237 33 1:55.91 Audrey WERRO 27 MAR 2004 SUISUI 1 Letzigrund, Zürich (SUI) 28 AUG 2025 1237
You know what half the board would be saying if she was from any African country and made that kind of jump
At this point nobody cares if she’s doping or something, as long as the one beating the world record is a woman I’m fine with that. At least she has to pass some kind of drug testing, it’s always going to be better than those Cold War times.
Keely: "Audrey was just better on the day today." [in a post race interview]
I'm a Keely fan, but... yeah... I don't think you can use that line when someone beats your PR. That's not "better on the day", that's better on your whole life. 😬
Easy there xddddd, only a LRC fanbois were referring to Keely as a generational talent.
More like a strong, sometimes dominant performer. ...But she hasn't shown anybody that her talent is generational.
Precisely my thoughts.
Aside from Keely herself, her training group, and her rabid fan club/network…I’m not sure anybody seriously considered her talent “generational,” she’s similar to Josh Kerr in that regard.
And outside of the American lens, I’m not sure Mu was even considered “generational”.
Quite frankly, once a TRUE generational talent emerges, there will literally be no doubt, no arguing otherwise…à la Lutkenhaus.
When Bobby Knight worked with Michael Jordan as he was coming out of college for Team USA, he said that Jordan was one of the best players he had ever seen because he had three things that don't often appear in a single person to the levels he saw in Jordan -- incredible innate physical ability, remarkable skill, and unceasing drive.
In 2021, people saw the 19 year old Mu's 400 speed and an Olympic win in the 800 and very much viewed her as a potential generational talent in the making. What they didn't know was that she lacked the drive.
Between Werro, Keely, and this up and coming collegian from Arkansas, Athing is done... DONE.
Forget any storybook comeback fantasy where she rediscovers her love for the sport. She's going to need to string multiple years of world class racing and training to get back to this level. We're talking all-out, fully dedicated years of blood, sweat, and tears, one after the other. And each one of those fully dedicated seasons have to serve as a building block to the next one before she could have a shot at a global podium again. Unless all of the stars align and all of these girls get injured simultaneously. And, even if that somehow happened, there are plenty of other girls that would still make it extremely difficult: Femke, GHB, Odira. That's another full podium alone.
Thanks for Werro's 800m PB progression. This would indicate that she has improved nearly 4 seconds in 2 years with a near 2 second improvement in 2 successive years.
My eyebrow is officially raised and I think everyone else's should be too. Let's see how this plays out. Hopefully she is the real deal.
I wonder if Keely was allowed a do-over she wouldn't have gone so early. Three hundred out is a long way to go off that kind of first 400m.
I get what you're saying, but idk man, Werro just looks more powerful now, and I think that's going to spell trouble for Keely regardless of how the race plays out.
Can Keely still find a way to win with perfect race execution? Sure, maybe. But after seeing Werro's strength the first lap and then somewhat easily overtaking Keely down the stretch and even relaxing a bit before the line, I wouldn't bet on it.
It's also hard to knock Keely's tactics today when she also ran a PB of 1:54.3. Maybe going a bit earlier is exactly what she needed to shave some more time off of her usual 1:54-highs.
Audrey Werro beats Keely Hodgkinson at Stockholm Diamond League 800m in a new PB and WL of 1:53.98!!
Discus
Werro improved from 1:55.91 to 1:53.98 in one year. It took KH 5 years to improve from her 1:55.88 to 1:54.33. Is this not suspicious?
This isn't like Cooper Lutkenhaus or Phanuel Koech because in their first year on the diamond league/US final, they validated their talent by running otherworldly times. Werro was already racing on the DL circuit since 2022. I don't buy it.
Thank you Letsrun for letting me get to page 3 before I had to start reading more cut-and-paste drug-derailing slurs.
A superb race. Keely was up in her shoulders and blowing at 300m. She'll be back, and Werro can't wait.
First, all props to Werro for a great race. She looked great, didn't get flustered by Keely's backstraight surge, and was just stronger in the homestretch. Amazing time.
On the other hand, I'm worried about Keely. She was, I thought, underwhelming in her 400m, barely nicking her PR, and certainly didn't expect to get run down in the homestretch today. Sure, it was a PR and a really good time, but not the race she would have wanted.
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