"I like to run at the front of the race," says Audrey Werro, explaining the approach to 800m racing that has taken her this far. "I feel more free. I can do everything I want."
The Swiss teenager is one of the most exciting middle distance talents to emerge over the last couple of years, winning European U20 800m gold in Tallinn, Estonia in 2021 and world U20 silver in Cali, Colombia, last year.
This summer, Werro has picked up right where she left off, the 19-year-old setting a world U20 1000m record of 2:34.89 at Meeting Nikaia in Nice last month to break a mark which had stood since 1982.
She followed that up with a commanding 800m victory in the first division at the European Athletics Team Championships in Silesia, leading every step of the way to hit the line in 1:59.95.
It makes her the favourite for the women’s 800m at next week’s European Athletics U20 Championships in Jerusalem where her chief opposition is likely to come from Great Britain’s Abigail Ives, who has also dipped under two minutes. “I hope I will (get) first place,” says Werro.
A native of Fribourg, a city of 38,000 people in the west of Switzerland, Werro first found athletics at the age of nine. There was no major running background in her family, but she gravitated towards it after a schoolteacher told her she had talent. She’d done a variety of sports in her childhood but once she found athletics, it had her full attention.
“I was doing cross country and I’d always win some medal,” she says.
Running for Club Athlétique Belfaux, she came under the guidance of Christiane Berset Nuoffer, who still coaches her today. “A really good coach,” says Werro. “She makes me feel confident (before) the race.”
Werro runs seven days a week, but isn’t one to worry about what volume she’s covering: “I don’t watch the kilometres, I just run.”
Her talent was obvious from an early age. In 2019, at the age of 15, she ran a swift 1:31.59 to win the Swiss U16 600m title and the following year, while still dabbling in the 400m, she clocked 2:08.72 for 800m. The summer of 2021 saw her big breakthrough, Werro setting Swiss U18 records at 400m (53.74), 600m (1:26.61) and 800m (2:02.32).
At the European Athletics U20 Championships in Tallinn that summer, she was the youngest athlete in the 800m final by more than a year at 17, but Werro performed like a seasoned veteran, sweeping to the front soon after the bell and coming home a wide-margin winner in 2:03.12.
Low mileage, high speed approach
Last year, she and her coach put a renewed focus on speed, with outings over 100m (11.99), 200m (24.20), 300m (37.97) and 400m (53.03). A 1:26.70 clocking for 600m last May showed she was primed for a breakthrough over 800m, and it arrived at the World Athletics U20 Championships in Cali.
There, Werro tracked USA’s Roisin Willis through the first 600 metres before striking for home on the final bend, building a five-metre advantage before Willis came back for more, edging her into second, with Werro taking silver in a Swiss U20 record of 1:59.53.
“It was a little bit stressful, my first World Championships,” says Werro. “But I learned to be calm before the race. It was a great experience.”
She describes the past year as “amazing”, but it heaped on pressure to reproduce the same brilliance in 2023. “I’m always a bit stressed at the beginning of the season because I want to run like last year, but this year is also good,” she says.
In March, she went to the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Istanbul and, after two ice-cool performances in her heat and semifinal, she found herself with a real medal shot in her first senior championship final.
Werro slotted in behind Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson, Slovenia’s Anita Horvat and France’s Agnes Raharolahy through the opening 600 metres of the 800m final before moving up to third, and she was still in the bronze medal position a few metres from the line before Raharolahy and Spain’s Lorea Ibarzabal edged past to demote her to fifth - just 0.06 away from the podium.
But she bounced back stronger than ever, blazing a Swiss senior record of 1:25.12 for 600m in May followed by a 1:59.67 800m before setting that world U20 1000m record of 2:34.89 in June.
With one year left in high school, her performances have inevitably drawn much interest from US colleges. Might Werro be tempted to go stateside next year?
“No, I prefer to stay with my club, my family, because I’m really (happy) in Switzerland,” she says.
In her spare time, Werro likes “cooking, reading, going out with my friends,” while her favourite athlete is France’s Renelle Lamote, who is “funny on Instagram.”
Gaining in confidence with Budapest and Paris approaching
In recent years, Werro has been given advice by many senior athletes. The thing she hears most often?
“To be confident,” she says. “I think I can be more confident before the race. I think I can do better with this.”
Still, there’s no doubt that her current approach is working. Werro says she doesn’t have a time goal in mind for this season, just to improve her current PB of 1:59.53. She plans to compete at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest and rest assured a certain event in Paris next year is already on her mind.
“Yes, I want to go to the Olympic Games,” she says.
On the path there, expect to see Werro at the front of most races she’s in, that long, graceful stride covering ground with apparent ease. It’s where she feels most comfortable. It’s where she feels most free.
Cathal Dennehy for European Athletics