Reigning European bronze medallist Anais Bourgoin gave France maximum points in a thrilling women’s 800m in a championship record ahead of the pre-race favourite Audrey Werro of Switzerland at Madrid 2025 on Saturday (28).
The Madrid 2025 European Athletics Team Championships 1st Division is being streamed live on the European Athletics website courtesy of the Eurovision Sport Platform.
The race started at a moderate pace, the opening 200 metres being covered only slightly under 30s with Werro at the helm and Poland’s Anna Wielgoscz closest to the Silesia 2023 victor.
The long-legged Swiss went through the bell in 1:01:30 with the Pole, Italy’s Elisa Coiro and Bourgoin closest to her.
Werro made her move on the backstraight some 540m into the race when she gradually injected a much brisker pace while Bourgoin overtook Coiro just before the last bend.
Werro headed by the 600m mark in 1:27.30 with some metres to spare but the French never surrendered in her chase to enter the homestraight just a couple of metres adrift.
The closing 100m proved to be more than thrilling as Werro still led with some 30 metres remaining but the courageous Frenchwoman managed to catch her to finally take the spoils in a championships record of 1:58.60 to Werro’s 1:58.78.
Third place went to Coiro, marginally ahead of Lithuania’s Gabija Galvydyte, 1:59.88 and 1:59.96 their respective performances.