Switzerland's Werro beats Olympic champion Hodgkinson for European 800m title

BIRMINGHAM, England, Aug 14 : Switzerland's Audrey Werro continued her remarkable rise by holding off Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson to win the 800 metres crown at the European Athletics Championships less than 24 hours after a heavy fall in the semi-finals.

The 22-year-old, who shocked the sport earlier this season by clocking the fastest time in 43 years, pulled away from Briton Hodgkinson over the final 150 metres to cross in one minute 54.81 seconds.

Crowd favourite Hodgkinson finished second in 1:55.01, while Femke Broeders-Bol was third in 1:55.54.

Werro, whose career has skyrocketed over the past few months, showed both resilience and composure to recover from Thursday's semi-final, when she took a hard tumble to finish last, but was reinstated for the final after it was determined that France's Anais Bourgoin made contact with Werro's right foot before the fall.

Karsten Warholm of Norway raced to his fourth successive European title in the 400m hurdles, clocking 46.63 seconds to break his own championship record.

Italian Gianmarco Tamberi, who has struggled with injuries the past couple of seasons, cleared 2.32 metres to win his fourth European high jump gold medal.