Sarah Healy finishes in eighth in the 1500m Diamond League final

Femke Bol was a class apart in the women’s 400m hurdles, clocking 52.18, while Karsten Warholm was equally dominant in the men’s race, clocking 46.70.

Thu, 28 Aug, 2025 - 20:59

Cathal Dennehy

In what had been a memorable Diamond League season for Sarah Healy, the grand finale proved a little forgettable. At the famed Weltklasse meeting in Zurich on Thursday night, the 24-year-old Dubliner came home eighth in a loaded 1500m, clocking 3:59.90, with victory going to Kenya’s Nelly Chepchirchir in 3:56.99.

With cool conditions for the Diamond League final, it was not a night for fast times although Jess Hull, the Olympic silver medallist, made a bold bid to threaten the 3:50 barrier, passing 800m in 2:03 and 1200m in a blazing 3:05. But the Australian was punch-drunk with fatigue in the home straight, surrendering an advantage of several metres as she staggered across the line second in 3:57.02.

Healy was only a few seconds behind but having secured four top-three finishes at Diamond Leagues this season, and having run 3:57 in her last three 1500m races, she was expecting more.

“It’s a disappointing run from me, to be honest,” she said. “I gave it everything, obviously, I just had nothing. I’ve kept all my runs under four this year, which is nice, but it felt so hard out there today. Honestly, looking at the times, I feel like everyone felt that; everyone was kind of down.”

Healy’s next outing will be at the World Championships in Tokyo, now just a fortnight away, where she will hope to make her first global outdoor final. “All the training is done,” she said. “Maybe I just need to freshen up a bit. I’m sure I’ll get back to myself by the time World’s come around, but that was tough out there today.”

Elsewhere, rising star Niels Laros again hammered his rivals to win the men’s 1500m final, unleashing a devastating last 100m to set a Dutch record of 3:29.20. Femke Bol was a class apart in the women’s 400m hurdles, clocking 52.18, while Karsten Warholm was equally dominant in the men’s race, clocking 46.70.

Olympic champion Julien Alfred had an impressive win in the women’s 100m in 10.76 (+0.3m/s), with Christian Coleman taking the men’s title in 9.97 (-0.4m/s). Swiss star Audrey Werro delighted the crowd with victory in the women’s 800m in a national record of 1:55.91 ahead of Britain’s Georgia Hunter Bell (1:55.96), while Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi took the men’s 800m in 1:42.37. US superstar Noah Lyles edged a close men’s 200m, clocking 19.74 to beat Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo (19.76).