European Athletics’ Rising Star and European U23 800m champion Audrey Werro says she believes Femke Bol can be a competitor “from day one” as she steps into her event next year.
The Swiss athlete was speaking in an exclusive interview with the European Athletics YouTube channel at the end of a brilliant season that saw her win the Diamond League final, gold at the Bergen 2025 European Athletics U23 Championships, and the female Rising Star award at the Golden Tracks in October.
"Femke Bol is an athlete I like to watch"
“I was not expecting that,” she said on hearing the news that the two-time world champion over 400m hurdles Bol will be switching to 800m from 2026.
“But now I think it's a good decision, and (I am) really excited about this change, because Femke Bol is an athlete I like to watch in the 400m.
“It's also cool to have her in the 800m, so we will see at the first race, when I can run with her, and I think it will be great. I think she can be a competitor from day one.
“Maybe the hardest thing is the 800m. Sometimes it’s really brutal. It may be hard, but I think she's ready.”
With the event already brimming with European talent, including Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson and her British teammate Georgia Hunter Bell, who pipped Hodgkinson to world silver this year, Werro is excited at the prospect of a high-quality showdown at the Birmingham 2026 European Athletics Championships.
“It's really hard now,” she acknowledged. “Because all the athletes are really strong, and I think everybody deserve a podium. So, it's really who is the best when the final comes.”
Big step to seniors
Werro was a prodigiously talented young athlete, winning consecutive titles at the European Athletics U20 Championships in Tallinn 2021 and Jerusalem 2023, sandwiching silver at the 2022 World U20 Championships in Cali, Colombia.
And the transition was not simple. “It was a difficult it was difficult for me to go from the junior categories to the senior categories,” she admitted. “It was a big, big step, but I think this year I have learned a lot mentally, and I'm more ready now.”
As well as her 2025 highlight victories at Bergen and the Diamond League final in Zurich in a national record 1:55.91, she also reached both finals at the Apeldoorn 2025 European Indoor Championships and the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo — a year of major progress for the 21-year-old.
With Birmingham 2026 on the horizon, Werro is set to play her part in what is shaping up to be one the events of the championships next summer.
