Former Czechoslovakian (Czech Republic) middle-distance runner Jarmila Kratochvílová holds the current 800 metre world record at 1:53.28. She set the time on July 26, 1983, in Munich, Germany.
Coming up on 43 years, it is the oldest record on the books, and until recently, it seemed as though it would not be broken in our lifetime. This may change soon, as Swiss runner Audrey Werro and Brit Keely Hodgkinson have been approaching this time in competition.
Werro, the 22-year-old phenom, has run 1:53.98 and 1:53.80 this season. Both performances were achieved in June during Diamond League meets in Stockholm and Paris, respectively.
The World Athletics points performance table gives points ratings of 1272 and 1276 for the two races, which are the third and fourth-fastest times in history.
Kratochvílová’s performance of 1:53.28 is credited with 1286 points.
The top 10 is being rewritten
Not long ago, when all distance world records were below the 1300 benchmark, 1:53.28 seemed almost impossible. However, now that the marathons, 5000m and 10,000m events have crested new previously unfathomable benchmarks, the 800m time seems slow in comparison, especially when using the points performance rating system.
The question is, is it slow in comparison, or is the points performance rating system imperfect?
The marathon world records of 1:59:30 and 2:09:56 by Kenyans Sabastian Sawe and Ruth Chepngetich are rated at 1328 and 1312. If the 800m were to be run at those points, what would the times be?
The performances would be 1:51.90 or 1:51.06.
Typically, women’s world record times are 9-10% slower than men’s. In this case, the men’s world record of 1:40.92 by Kenyan David Rudisha is 10.92% faster than Kratochvílová’s 1:53.28.
Rudisha’s world record earned a points rating of 1301. A woman’s 800m run of 1301 points would equal 1:52.48.
What is amazing about Rudisha’s performance is the fact that he set it in 2012, four years before the popularization of super shoes and well before the widespread use of the legal performance-enhancing supplement bi-carb.
The role of technology and bi-carb
Two years ago, Kenyan Emmanuel Wanyonyi ran 1:41.11 and 1:41.19. He was 20. No one else has again run sub 1:41, including Rudisha.
Kenyan Beatrice Chebet ran the 10,000m in 28:54.14. She is the first woman to run under 29 minutes. She is also the first woman to run under 14 minutes in the 5000m and the 5km. She ran 13:58.06 and 13:54, respectively. Only her 10,000m performance is rated over 1300 points at 1309.
Last year, Kenyan Faith Kipyegon got close to the 1300 point level with a 1298 in the 1500m distance event, clocking 3:48.68.
She needed pacers, Wavelight technology, a fast track and Super Spikes. It is unknown at this time if she takes bi-carb, the lactate-reducing product developed by Maurten, who have been able to create a slurry that allows the consumption of bicarbonate without affecting the gastrointestinal system.
The question of whether an athlete is going to pass the 1:53.28 world record set by Kratochvílová appears to be a moot point, but who may it be?
For a couple of years, it was Hodgkinson. And she still may get there first, but it increasingly looks like Werro may do it.
Hodgkinson has run as fast as 1:54.33 in the Stockholm Diamond League in 2026. She ran a new British record in that race, but lost to Werro in a surprise outcome. It is the seventh-fastest time in history. She is the sixth-fastest athlete all-time. Only Werro has run faster twice.
Werro also ran 1:54.45, the ninth-fastest time in history.
In the top-10 fastest performances all time, Werro appears three times and Caster Semenya from South Africa appears twice (1:54.60 and 1:54.24); otherwise, everyone else appears once.
There are six Diamond League meets remaining in the 2026 schedule. While there are other meets available, the league produces the fastest times.
Next up are the Monaco Herculis meet on July 10, followed by the London Athletics Meet on July 18, where Hodgkinson is slated to chase the world record.
Then there is Lausanne on August 21, Silesia on August 23, Zurich on August 27 and Brussels on September 2-5, which is the league championships. There are no global championships
However, August 10 to 16 are the European Athletics Championships. As Hodgkinson and Werro are European, expect them to show up ready to race through the rounds and compete in the final.
In other words, there are plenty of races left in the season for Werro and Hodgkinson to race, if both are healthy.
For historical reference
Since 1976, only 26 times has 1:55.00 been crested. That year, during the Montreal Olympic Games, it was Tatyana Kazankina of the former Soviet Union who clocked 1:54.94 for the gold medal win, a difference of 166 hundredths of a second off the current world record and 114 hundredths of a second off Werro’s best time, run in June 2026.
Whether the World Athletics points system is inherently flawed or the 800-metre record is simply a freakish product of a bygone era is almost beside the point. For more than four decades, Kratochvílová’s 1:53.28 sat on a shelf like a museum piece, untouchable, rigid, and increasingly isolated as modern super-spikes, bi-carb pacing tech, and progressive training smashed barriers from the 5,000m to the marathon.
But history is no longer static. As the Diamond League circuit rolls into Monaco and London, and with the European Athletics Championships looming in August, the chase is no longer a mathematical simulation. The gap between Kratochvílová’s world record and Werro’s June masterclass represents a defiance of modern evolution. With six major opportunities left on the calendar, the oldest record on the books is no longer safe—and the stopwatch, not the points table, will have the final word.
The numbers suggest that a sub-1:53 performance is not just possible, but statistically overdue when measured against the modern explosion of distance records. What was once deemed a moot point has transformed into the compelling story of the 2026 season, a global watch party.
We are no longer watching athletes chase a ghost in the history books; we are watching a live-wire duel between an established British powerhouse and a 22-year-old Swiss phenom who is rewriting the all-time top-10 list. If Kratochvílová’s mark is destined to fall this summer, it won’t happen in a vacuum. It will be forged in the competitive kiln of London, Zurich, or Brussels, where Hodgkinson and Werro will force each other to run into uncharted territory. Forty-three years of waiting may very well come down to a matter of hundredths on a warm European night this August.
