Swiss favourite Audrey Werro holds off Keely Hodgkinson to clinch women’s 800m gold at European Athletics Championship in Birmingham; result ended British Olympic champion Hodgkinson’s hopes of a hat-trick of European 800m victories, having clinched gold in Munich 2022 and Rome 2024

Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson was denied a hat-trick of European 800m golds

Keely Hodgkinson came up just short of a coveted European 800m title hat-trick after Swiss favourite Audrey Werro won their hotly-anticipated showdown in Birmingham as the British Olympic champion settled for silver.

Hodgkinson started quicker but was overtaken by Werro on the back straight and the latter was never overtaken after the first 200m.

Double-defending champion Hodgkinson was just behind as they rounded the final bend, but Werro would not be caught and crossed the finish in a championship record 1:54.81.

Werro, Hodgkinson and Femke Broeders-Bol finished first, second and third in the highly-anticipated 800m final

Hodgkinson claimed silver in 1:55.01 and the Netherlands’ Femke-Broeders Bol took bronze in a national record 1:55.54.

After losing her title, Hodgkinson said: “Mixed emotions. With that level of competition, any medal is an achievement.

“I thought I was going to win. I didn’t do anything wrong, just one of those things.

“I’ve had a pretty good day today, just didn’t go the way that I wanted.

“There were so many different ways that could have played out and we’d figure it out after the first 100m. Audrey wanted to take it on and with that wind I was happy to let her. We’re all really great athletes so I knew it was going to be close. I’m looking forward to the next match-up.

“I’ve said all year it’s really motivating to be in such a competitive event. I love it, it brings out the best in me. Championship racing, that’s what it’s all about, you don’t know how it’s going to go and some people can have a good day or a bad day. I had a pretty good day today but it just didn’t go how I wanted it to.”

The world record remains the longest-standing record in athletics set in 1983 by Jarmila Kratochvilova’s with a time of 1:53.28 seconds.

While the world record wasn’t troubled, Werro’s time of 1:54.81 did break the championship record set by Olga Mineyeva in 1982.

Hodgkinson’s silver medal is Britain’s 10th medal in five days on home soil. Earlier on Friday, Zharnel Hughes claimed silver in the men’s 200m.

Raul Jimenez scored a stoppage-time equaliser from the penalty spot on his return to Molineux to salvage a 2-2 draw for Wolves against Blackburn.

Wolves took the lead through Marshall Munetsi when Fer Lopez threaded the ball through for him to finish neatly beyond Balazs Hoth. But Blackburn scored a deserved equaliser when Sean McLoughlin nodded in from Ryoya Morishita’s right-wing cross.

And Rovers stunned most of the 30,984 inside Molineux when Andri Gudjohnsen converted from close range early in the second half. Wolves turned to returning hero Jimenez off the bench but there was very little sign of them finding an equaliser.

That changed when Jackson Tchatchoua’s left-wing cross struck the hand of the otherwise excellent Ryan Alebiosu just inside the box and the referee awarded a penalty. Jimenez held his nerve to snatch a point for Cesar Peixoto’s Wolves side.

It was barely deserved. Tony Mowbray’s Blackburn, unfancied going into the campaign before a ball was kicked, could not hold on for the victory but did exceed expectations. Wolves will need to improve significantly if they are to come close to satisfying theirs.

Key moments at Molineux

18 – GOAL! Munetsi opens the scoring for Wolves

28 – GOAL! McLoughlin nods Blackburn level

49 – GOAL! Gudjohnsen slots Blackburn ahead

60 – SUB! Cometh the hour? Jimenez is introduced

90+3 – GOAL! Jimenez converts a penalty to equalise

Jimenez: We need to learn from this

Wolves hero Raul Jimenez speaking to Sky Sports:

“It’s amazing to be back, scoring in the first game of the season. It’s not the result we were looking for in our first home game of the new season, so we need to learn from this. All the games are going to be difficult here, no matter who we play against.

“We need to keep going, it’s just the start. I’m going to keep working and going forward to keep improving with the team, to hopefully earn many points and score a lot of goals.”

On giving out free ‘Si Senor’ scarves to the Wolves supporters in the Sir Jack Hayward Stand:

“It’s nice to give them back some love that they were showing me for the past eight years, even when I wasn’t here at the club. I felt the big love they had for me, so it’s the least I could do.”

Peixoto: We played with heart not head

Wolves boss Cesar Peixoto speaking to Sky Sports:

“It’s not the result we wanted, we wanted to win. We were better in the first half, we created a lot of situations but didn’t score. In the second half we suffered a bit more, we conceded the goal.

“After that we played more with heart than with our heads or brain. We lost organisation and it was more difficult after that.

“But the effort of the players was good. We showed big heart to fight until the end. We want to be a team who never gives up, but we have to improve and stay organised.”

Relegation hangover for Wolves?

Speaking to Peixoto in the press conference afterwards, it was a chance to ask him why Wolves lost their organisation. It is hardly a new phenomenon at Molineux but it would have been new to the Portuguese coach who has seen a controlled team in pre-season.

“The stadium is amazing, a lot of supporters, a good crowd that supports until the end. But it’s normal when things are not the right way, the way the team wants, the players want, and the past comes and they play more with the heart than with the brain.”

The past comes. That is the fear for Wolves. It was a packed house but that brings expectation and the players struggled to cope with that once they fell behind. On paper, the problems came before – conceding twice – and they did find that late equaliser.

In reality, the most worrying period came when behind. “We didn’t wait for the right triggers to go like we do normally in the last games and because of that if you go press high, the team doesn’t stay compact in the right moments. We had more difficulties.”

Panicky players and a panicky crowd on night one of this Championship slog does not bode particularly well. Wolves will make changes to the personnel in the coming weeks and the hope is that this will help. But if past frustrations linger it could be a real issue.

Mowbray: It looks outside the box to me

Blackburn Rovers boss Tony Mowbray speaking to Sky Sports:

“Having watched the still pictures it looks outside the box to me.

“If it hits him on the hand and it’s away from his body I suppose in modern-day football [it’s a penalty] I suppose. But it still looks outside the box to me.”

Blackburn boss answers the doubters

Mowbray revealed afterwards that he had been listening to the radio on the journey down to Wolverhampton and heard a number of pundits tipping his Blackburn team for relegation. They saw a team that narrowly escaped the drop and might have weakened.

Speaking to Mowbray in the press conference, it was a chance to ask him how that talk made him feel. “We invested in a young boy from Stockport County [Jayden Fevrier] and a free transfer [Sam Morsy] and they probably think, ‘oh they’re going down now’,” he said.

“I have asked the dressing room and the collective spirit of the dressing room to stand up and say what we thought. And I think we showed today there’s enough quality there to give teams problems, even better teams in the league.” This was an encouraging start.

What the result means and next fixtures…