Track and Field
Audrey Werro wants to keep her winning streak going
Keystone
Swiss track and field is currently making headlines left and right. This winning streak is set to continue at the European Championships in Birmingham, which begin on Monday. Seven medals is the minimum goal.
Today at 04:15•
Today at 08:065, 4, 6, and 9—that’s how many medals Switzerland has won at the last four European Athletics Championships. That’s as many as it won at the first 22 continental championships combined. There’s currently no sign of this success coming to an end. Not only is Swiss Athletics fielding its largest-ever team at the European Championships in Birmingham—67 athletes have been selected, seven more than the previous record set two years ago in Rome—but the quality of the squad is also exceptional.
First and foremost is Audrey Werro. The 22-year-old from Freiburg is currently the standard-bearer in the 800-meter race. She remains undefeated this year in the outdoor 800-meter race and has won, among other events, the Diamond League meets in Rabat, Stockholm, and Paris.
In Stockholm, she defeated British Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson, to whom she had lost in March at the World Indoor Championships in Torun. With a time of 1:53.98, Werro broke the magical 1:54-minute barrier for the first time. In the French capital, she improved her personal best to 1:53.80 minutes. She is the only runner ever to have broken the 1:54-minute barrier twice. On the all-time list, she ranks behind only the Czech Jarmila Kratochvílová (1:53.28/1983) and Nadezhda Olisarenko (1:53.43/1980), who competed for the Soviet Union.
Annik Kälin is also the top favorite
Werro isn’t the only Swiss woman to top the world rankings for the year. Annik Kälin is number one in the heptathlon. At the end of May, the 26-year-old from Graubünden won the prestigious combined events meet in Götzis with 6,726 points; just under a month later, she improved her Swiss record once again to 6,819 points in Ratingen. Both scores remain unmatched this year.
Simon Ehammer also holds the world-leading mark in the decathlon with 8,778 points. However, the 26-year-old from Appenzell will be competing for a medal in the long jump in the UK’s second-largest city, as it is not possible to compete in both events. In the long jump this year, only two-time Greek Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou (8.66 m) jumped farther than Ehammer, who improved his own national record from 2022 by six centimeters with a jump of 8.51 m in Götzis.
Four Swiss defending champions
Defending champions Timothé Mumenthaler (200 m) and Dominic Lobalu (10,000 m), as well as Mujinga Kambundji (200 m) and Angelica Moser (pole vault), will be competing. Two years ago in Rome, 23-year-old Mumenthaler won the gold medal in the 200-meter race virtually out of nowhere. Now it remains to be seen how he handles his new role, though a repeat victory would be another major achievement. Six competitors have been faster than him this year.
Lobalu demonstrated his finishing speed in his victory in the 5,000-meter race at the Diamond League meet in Monaco, but subsequently struggled with muscle tightness in his lower back. Now, however, the 27-year-old feels ready.
Moser has proven time and again that she can deliver at major events. Although she suffered a ligament injury in her right foot at the end of June during her triumph at the Diamond League meet in Paris, she still competed in three events in July. The 28-year-old from Zurich is definitely one to watch in Birmingham.
The situation is different for Mujinga Kambundji, who became a mother for the first time in November 2025. Although the 34-year-old from Bern is convinced she’s on the right track following her comeback, she was unable to qualify for the European Championships in the 100-meter dash. She is seeded as the defending champion in the 200-meter race, though she has competed in only one 200-meter race this year (23.37).
What can we expect from Ditaji Kambundji?
There’s a question mark hanging over her sister, Ditaji Kambundji. Last year’s 100-meter hurdles world champion suffered a strained quadriceps at the end of June; she ran her last race on May 31 in Rabat. The uncertainty is all the greater given that her personal best from 2026 stands at 12.62 seconds. Furthermore, she has already qualified for the semifinals at the European Championships; she would have preferred to compete in the preliminary round.
Géraldine Frey heads into the European Championships as the fastest European woman this year in the 100-meter dash. Jason Joseph, who placed third at the 2024 European Championships in Rome, also has a good chance of winning a medal in the 110-meter hurdles. Fabienne Hoenke is the fourth-fastest entrant in the 200-meter race, while javelin thrower Leonie Hügli will line up as the No. 5 seed. In the relays, the women’s 4×100-meter quartet, in particular, has a good chance of a podium finish.
The Swiss team is therefore in excellent shape, and its ambitions are correspondingly high. “At least 15 top-8 finishes, including seven medals, are a perfectly realistic goal for Birmingham,” says Philipp Bandi. The head of competitive sports at Swiss Athletics is also hoping for another milestone for Swiss track and field: a top-8 finish in all five discipline groups—sprint/hurdles, running, jumping, throwing, and combined events. This has never been achieved at a single European Championship. Now, the chances of doing so remain intact.