AUDREY MF WERRO, 1:53.98 WL

When I see Werro, I see someone who - if they were raised in America - would probably encouraged to participate in other sports. She just has that kind of athletic build for basketball, volleyball, etc. Thankfully she does track and makes the 800 even more exciting, if one can imagine that.

Keely has a lot of work to do.

isn`this thread for Werro ? reads more like it's for Hodgkinson

Keely knows how to race one way. She’ll be ready when the season counts. This def makes it exciting.

Werro is a female Juantorena - looong stride.

And another lackluster performance by Hurta. 8th overall and last US runner

Sage haters must be starving right now. She opened her outdoor season with 1:58.1 in Rabat last week and followed up with 1:58.2 today in Stockholm. Solid, consistent, world-class. She looks ready to contend for USA 800m championship again this year. Roisin Willis is probably the current favorite for that, but I know Sage will make her work for it :)

That is an excellent quote by Keely. Her tactical instincts are never the greatest. It's one of the reasons she had so much trouble with Mary Moraa for several years. Heck, Moraa got into Keely's head as recently as last year's world championship final.

These days the Hodgkinson camp seems to believe that if she is capable of 1:55 or lower then the tactics don't really matter. That was proven wrong last year in Tokyo and again today.

Werro did a tremendous job of backing off during the third quarter. Her split from 400 to 600 was easily her slowest of the race. I always used to emphasize that on the Track and Field News forum. The conventional wisdom of pushing the third 200 is sheer idiocy. A frontrunner needs to establish at the bell then back off slightly. Moraa frustrated Keely several times using that tactic. Today Keely played right into Werro's hands by foolishly taking the lead on the backstretch even though the pacer was still full of run. That meant Werro was paced throughout. She never led one step of the race until the final 60 meters.

Once they turned for home the outcome seemed inevitable. Credit to Keely for unbeaten at 800 during 2024. Otherwise she tends to lose the close ones.

Now it's a matter of whether Femke Broeders-Bol will establish toward the 1:54-1:55 block or back toward that second wave at 1:57-1:58. I will be very surprised if Femke isn't quickly top tier. There is no comparison whatsoever in speed and ability level between Femke and her longtime teammate Eveline Saalberg. Femke is training specifically for 800 while Saalberg is splitting emphasis between 400 and 800. Today in Poland Saalberg set a personal best by 2 seconds while winning an 800 race in 2:00.30

1:58 isn't world class anymore.

This was a quantum leap forward but Werro has been looking better and better, and maybe there was a significant change to help her hold form in that second lap, whether she just started the baking soda (unlikely) or added more distance or strength work. As for Hodgkinson, she has been working on her speed, so she might well be equal or better to Werro when she gets in another six weeks of 800 work before her attempt in London next month. Rather than saying, go ahead and flee to the 1500 to escape a strong challenger, akin to Femke's in my mind misguided switch to the 800, Keely will take this as a challenge and do what champions do--work to beat her. This might be a changing of the guard, but I'm not ready to admit that it is just yet given the margin (.35) and the recent 400 focus.

She improved to a time (1:55) that was really good but not beyond the bounds of what other non-PED using, no-DSD women have run. Werro just improved by nearly 2 seconds to a time that puts her in a line with renowned dopers. That's the difference

It looked like Werro got stuck behind the pacer slowing down at 450-500m, which is when Keely made her decisive move - which was quite easy given this situation. I do wonder if Werro could have actually gone faster if the pacer had maintained better speed or dropped out earlier.

Thanks for the splits. It did seem that tactically wise Keely went a little too early and ran out of steam. And she certainly slowed down on the last 100m.

I’m guessing her team thought the 400m on Thursday would have helped her speed last night- but I guess too soon for any gains to kick in. Would it have tired her? She looked tired in the last 100m.

It’s hard to argue with a PB but I am wondering what her ceiling will be. I also agree she was demoralised as Werro passed her.

She is getting a lot of criticism on here but she has been nothing but gracious in her post race interview towards Werro. She says she welcomes the competition and they can push each other the great times.

That's fantastic work. But I really fancy Keely to be the next one to lower the time.

I think that 400m from a few days prior may have caused her to tie up in the home straight.

Keely is Ms Consistency, having run 1:54 many times.

The great thing about yesterday's run is that the girls themselves now know that 1:53 is doable.

Odira could do it in the heat and humidity of Tokyo but will she be able to handle windy and cold Glasgow?

A reality check! In her first two races of a very long and busy season, Keely sets two personal best times. What a disaster!

Thats true,but werro's high 1.53 is worth about a 1.55 flat on the track that olizarenko ran on at the moscow olympics. Slower track,and no super spikes.

That says a lot about the hype though. KH has 5 PBs this year (3 indoor and 2 outdoor) so it's hard to see what more she could have done.

Keely functionally served as Werro’s second pacemaker, leading her from 500m to 700m, and in the end, set the race up perfectly for the young Swiss star. It’s difficult to overstate how valuable it was for Werro to have an athlete of Keely’s calibre to lead her all the way until the final home straight.