{"id":2969,"date":"2026-06-08T09:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T16:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=2969"},"modified":"2026-06-08T09:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T16:08:08","slug":"800m-takes-center-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/?p=2969","title":{"rendered":"800m Takes Center Stage"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Stockholm Sweden, the fifth stop on this year’s Diamond League calendar. On a day when Mondo Duplantis was supposed to reign supreme before the home crowd, it was Audrey Werro, Cooper Lutkenhaus, and the 800m that took center stage! First Mondo did make history, losing for the first time since 2023, ending a 40 meet winning streak, after clearing only 5.80m. That was NOT the biggest news of the day however, as the 800m stole the spotlight from Mr Duplantis.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

First was seventeen year old Cooper Lutkenhaus, the youngest ever world indoor champion in the 800m. Fresh off finishing his junior year in high school, Cooper headed to Sweden for his first ever Diamond League race. The field included Marcos Arop, a former outdoor world champion and holder of a 1:41.20 best in the event (#4 all time). Also in the race were Gabriel Tual (#6 all time, 2:41.61) and Bryce Hoppel (AR holder at 1:41.67, #7 all time). With four others in the race with bests of 1:42xx this was a stacked field. Cooper looked relaxed as he stood on the starting line however, unfazed by what he was about to face. At the gun, he settled into the middle of the pack around the bend, then set his sights on the rabbit and Arop, moving up to third at the bell. Then calmly followed Arop around the track to the home stretch. He ran up beside Arop, then casually by him in the final 50m to win in 1:42.70. The #2 time on the season, and Cooper’s second best time ever. No stress, no strain. He handled this race as if it were a high school Invitational, and that’s what makes this kid so special in my opinion. Yes, he ran poorly since his international debut at lost year’s World Championships, but clearly learned from that experience. Since then, in his races this year, he has been as cool as the other side of the pillow. Showing both calm and mastery of the event far beyond his biological age! This “kid” has surgically cut through each field that he’s faced and looks (knock on wood) to be the future of the event. I’m dying to see him race against the master, Emmanuel Wanyonyi, at some point this year. I think they will race each other to something special.<\/p>\n

Special is exactly what we got in the women’s 800m. Billed as an attempt for Keely Hodgkinson to take a shot at running 1:53, the pace lights were set at 1:54.00 pace. From the gun however, it wasn’t Keely following the pace maker, but Audrey Werro who slipped in beaten them. As the rabbit stepped off the track at 500m it was Keely that took over the lead with Werro tucking in behind. As Keely upped the tempo however, Audrey stayed strong, and as they entered the stretch it was Werro that came up to Keely’s shoulder and went past! Running to victory in 1:53.98 to Hodgkinson’s 1:54.33. A PB and British record for Keely, making her the 6th fastest woman ever. Werro however became only the third woman in history under 1:54, and the first to do so since 1983! Suddenly we have two women at the door of WR territory, with three other active women under 1:55.80. As this race showed, predictions often go awry, but we are looking at the possibility of let’s say, faster races occurring in the near future. Iron sharpens iron, and we have the tools for some serious racing in this event.<\/p>\n

Both the men and women’s 800m are primed for something special this year. Get a seat, some popcorn and lets see where they go.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stockholm Sweden, the fifth stop on this year’s Diamond League calendar. On a day when Mondo Duplantis was supposed to reign supreme before the home crowd, it was Audrey Werro, Cooper Lutkenhaus, and the 800m that took center stage! First Mondo did make history, losing for the first time since 2023, ending a 40 meet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[651,666,667],"class_list":["post-2969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-hodgkinson","tag-lutkenhaus","tag-werro"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa3DCY-LT","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2969"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2971,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2969\/revisions\/2971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/trackchill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}