Diamond League: Outstanding 800 metre performances at La Ville Lumiere’s Stade Charléty on Sunday

At the 2026 Paris Diamond League meet on Sunday, June 28, there were several extraordinary performances.

Last week, parts of Europe, including Paris, suffered under the effects of a heat dome, causing temperatures to rise to well over 40 °C. Authorities were considering cancelling or postponing the event; however, temperatures began to cool by the weekend.

Marco Arop

The Canadian 800 metre specialist ran the world lead for 2026 on Sunday, clocking in an impressive 1:41.84. He bettered The Netherlands’ Niels Laros by nearly two seconds, who finished in a personal best time of 1:43.60. Tobias Grønstad of Norway took third in 1:43.63.

Arop, some years can take several races to round into form. This year is no exception. In May, he did not finish an 800m race. Then he ran well, but not in his usual dominating way, in Stockholm and then Oslo, clocking 1:43.11 and 1:43.33, respectively. Arop ventured into two overdistance events at the Canadian Track and Field Championships in Ottawa, finishing in 3:47.92 and 3:38.28 in the heats and final.

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Arop put on a dominating display at the La Ville Lumière, laying down the 27th fastest performance in history, run by a total of only nine other athletes. He is the fourth-fastest athlete of all time with his personal best of 1:41.20 in Saint-Denis two years ago. It is the seventh-fastest run in history better by just three performances by David Rudisha, one by Wilson Kipketer, and two by Emmanuel Wanyonyi. All three are Kenyan.

Audrey Werro

The Swiss athlete is having her best season yet, having racked up several top-level performances. The latest is a personal best of 1:53.80, the third-fastest time in history, behind only Jarmila Kratochvílová of the Czech Republic (fmr: Czechoslovakia). On June 7th, Werro ran 1:53.90 in Stockholm. Now the fourth-fastest performance all-time. On the 16th in Ostrava, she had run 1:54.45. All three performances are faster than the 22-year-old’s PB from 2025 of 1:55.91.

Taking second was Femke Broeders-Bol, who switched up from the 400m to the 800m this year. Each race is faster than the previous. She is now within range of the top athletes; however, Werro’s performance may have overshadowed the Dutch athlete’s international-level 1:55.60. France’s Anaïs Bourgoin took third in 155.65, a new PB.

Werro’s coming-out party, as one of the all-time great 800m runners, happened on June 7 in Stockholm, where she bettered Olympic gold medallist Keely Hodgkinson, who, in improving her own British record of 1:54.33, was left surprised, just as the spectators were.

Werro had run the fastest time in 43 years. She has made no secret of her goal to become the world record holder. The current world record was set in München, Germany, in July 1983, under a cloud of suspicion that remains today. Kratochvílová clocked a 1:53.28. She had surpassed Ukrainian Nadezhda Olizarenko’s Moscow performance of 1:53.43. Hodgkinson now has the seventh-fastest time in history with her 1:54.33 from the Stockholm meet. She too wants to take the world record. It may happen this summer. Hodgkinson is currently injured.

Other leading performances

Great Britain’s Georgia Hunter-Bell won the 1500m event in a season best 3:55.73. She held off Ethiopia’s Freweyni Hailu, who finished second in 3:55.92, which represents a season best. And taking third for a French national record was Agathe Guillemot, clocking 3:56.24.

Cameron Myers of Australia ran a national and Oceania record 1500m at 3:28.00, which is the current world lead for 2026. Taking second was France’s Azeddine Habz in a season best of 3:29.80. And back in the fray is Great Britain’s Kae Wightman, clocking his best run this year at 3:29.95 for third. The 31-year-old Eugene World Champion from 22 owns a best of 3:29.23. So, he is back in form.

The 32-year-old Habz took the national record in 2025 at the same Meeting de Paris at Stade Charléty, stopping the clock at 3:27.49.

Myers, at age 20, set a world-class personal best time. The Australian holds seven world or area (Oceania) U20 records.

Full results are below.

Results

Women’s Results

Women’s 400m

Women’s 800m

Women’s 1500m

Women’s 100m Hurdles – Wind:+0.7

Women’s Javelin Throw

Men’s Results

Men’s 100m – Wind:+0.1

Men’s 400m

Men’s 800m

Men’s 1500m

Men’s 5000m

Men’s 110m Hurdles Final – Wind:+0.8

Men’s 110m Hurdles Heat 1 – Wind:+0.2

Men’s 110m Hurdles Heat 2

Men’s 3000m Steeplechase

Men’s Pole Vault