Hunter Bell triumphs again at Paris Diamond League

Published28 June 2026

Great Britain's Georgia Hunter Bell stormed to her second Diamond League win of the year with a season's best time in the women's 1500m in Paris.

The Olympic bronze medallist clocked three minutes 55.63 seconds to fight off a strong challenge from Ethiopia's Freweyni Hailu (3:55.92), while France's Agathe Guillemot (3:56.24) took third place.

Hunter Bell, who claimed her first world title in Torun in March, also won the Rome leg of the Diamond League in 3:58.63 last month.

The 32-year-old won the world 800m silver ahead of Keely Hodgkinson in Tokyo last year, but has since returned to the longer distance in which she claimed a remarkable Olympic bronze in 2024.

And the latest win at Stade Charlety will further add to her momentum with the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, starting in July, and the European Championships in Birmingham taking place the following month.

GB's Ben Pattison, meanwhile, finished fourth in the men's 800m which was won by Canada's Marco Arop in 1:41.84 - the fastest run of the calendar year.

Olympic silver medallist Matthew Hudson-Smith was also fourth in the men's 400m, behind Botswana's world champion Busang Collen Kebinatshipi with a meet record time of 43.54.

The Paris event was held in an adapted format after local police asked for all sporting events to be cancelled because of the extreme heat.

It only featured competitions involving professional athletes as all activities for athletics clubs and licensed members, as well as regional competitions, were cancelled.

Duplantis back to winning ways, Werro goes faster, Lyles beaten

Armand Duplantis returned to winning ways in the men's pole vault after his shock defeat in Stockholm earlier this month.

The Swede cleared a meet record 6.13m to finish comfortably ahead of France's Baptiste Thierry, who took second place with a personal best 5.93m.

The victory marked a swift return to form for Duplantis, who failed to win for the first time in 40 meets at his home Diamond League event on 7 June.

However, the 26-year-old had three unsuccessful attempts to clear 6.32m and break his own world record of 6.31m set in Uppsala in March.

Meanwhile, Switzerland's Audrey Werro ran the third fastest time ever to win the women's 800m ahead of Femke Broeders-Bol.

Werro clocked 1:53.80 to add to her triumphs in Rabat and Stockholm - the latter success despite a personal best from GB's Olympic 800m champion Hodgkinson - and now has three of the nine fastest times in history.

The 22-year-old has targeted the oldest-standing athletics world record of 1:53.28 for the outdoor 800m, set by Jarmila Kratochvilova of Czechoslovakia in 1983.

Two-time world bronze medallist Trayvon Bromell upset his United States team-mate and reigning Olympic champion Noah Lyles to win the men's 100m in 9.91.

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