BIRMINGHAM, England (AP) — Shy as a kid, Audrey Werro took her dad's advice before races that “I have to be a lion.”
The 22-year-old Swiss star, who uses a lion's roar celebration, will be in the spotlight at the European championships when she's expected to line up against Keely Hodgkinson and Femke Broeders-Bol in the highly anticipated women's 800 meters.
Britain's Hodgkinson is the reigning Olympic champion and Dutch star Broeders-Bol has impressed in her first year in the 800 after switching from the 400-meter hurdles. Meanwhile, Werro in late June ran the third-fastest women's time ever: 1 minute, 53.80 seconds.
The women's 800 world record of 1:53:28 was set in 1983 by Jarmila Kratochvilova.
“The goal is to win the medal,” Werro said Sunday at a press conference at Alexander Stadium ahead of the seven-day European championships. “I don’t know if the race will be fast or it will be a tactical race. I don't have the world record now in my head.”
The final is Friday night.
Swedish pole vaulter Armand “Mondo” Duplantis sounds as if he's fully recovered from a thigh issue that forced him to stop competing at the London Diamond League meet just over three weeks ago.
The two-time reigning Olympic champion told the BBC that he's eager for another world record. He wants one “like, yesterday.”
In March, the Louisiana-born Duplantis broke the world record for a 15th time. When he's not breaking records, the part-time crooner is making them too.
The men's pole vault final is next Sunday on the final evening of the competition.
Two-time Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen is set to make his return from surgery on his left Achilles tendon when he lines up in the 5,000 meters on Monday night. The 25-year-old Norwegian had surgery in early 2026 to clean up scar tissue on the protective sheath around the tendon.
Ingebrigtsen is not registered for the 1,500 meters. He’s won both the 1,500 and 5,000 at the past three European championships.
Ingebrigtsen won the Olympic title in the 1,500 at the Tokyo Games held in 2021. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, he won gold in the 5,000.
The women’s 100-meter final is also Monday night.
This is the first time that Britain has hosted the European championships. An estimated 1,600 athletes from 49 member federations will compete.
“I want us and our great sport to dominate the sporting landscape for the next week,” said Jack Buckner, CEO of UK Athletics. “We can forget about football transfers for a little bit and we can just enjoy the best athletes in the world.”
Visitors can enjoy host Birmingham, as well. The West Midlands city home to “Peaky Blinders” and the late Ozzy Osbourne also boasts some good cuisine.
“We have the best curry and fish and chips,” said Matt Hudson-Smith, who grew up in the area and has a section of Alexander Stadium named for him.
Hudson-Smith, the silver medalist in the 400 meters at the Paris Olympics, said Birmingham is sometimes on the receiving end of jokes “from the Londoners.”
“We’re a quirky city. We’re a strong community,” said Hudson-Smith, who expects to be in the 400 final on Wednesday night. “Everyone knows everybody. It’s a big city but it’s so close-knit it’s insane.”
Ten athletes with the best performances will each receive a bonus of 50,000 euros ($58,000).
European Athletics said its “gold crown initiative,” launched at the 2024 edition in Rome, will reward athletes across five groups of events for both men and women: sprints and hurdles; middle and long distance; throws; jumps; road, combined events and relays.
World Athletics scoring tables will determine the highest scoring performance in the respective finals.
AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
Britain's Laviai Nielsen runs during a training session ahead of the start of the European Athletics Championships, in Birmingham, England, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026. (Martin Rickett/PA via AP)
Britain's Matthew Hudson-Smith, center, reacts with Amber Anning, left and Nicole Yeargin, during a training session ahead of the start of the European Athletics Championships, in Birmingham, England, Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026. (Martin Rickett/PA via AP)
FILE - Audrey Werro of Switzerland, poses after winning the women's 800 meters at the Meeting de Paris Diamond League athletics meet in Paris, June 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, File)
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addressed the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday, delivering prerecorded remarks from his office in Ramallah after the United States denied him and other top Palestinian officials visas to attend the gathering for the second year in a row.
The 90-year-old leader's popularity at home and relevance abroad have both waned. But in his remarks, Abbas made clear he did not intend to quietly accept being sidelined.
“We will not leave our homeland. We will not accept displacement. And we will not allow anyone to decide our future on our behalf,” Abbas said.
Though world leaders have repeatedly invoked the plight of Palestinians in speeches throughout the week, Abbas urged the international community to take more tangible action against Israel.
"How long will some countries continue to remain silent about Israel, or continue supplying it with weapons that it uses against our people? The world has witnessed the enormous cost in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank," Abbas said. “What, then, is the international community waiting for before it acts to protect the Palestinian people?”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was scheduled to speak in person early in the afternoon and arrived in New York in the morning. As Abbas spoke, the Israeli delegations' seats in the General Assembly hall sat vacant.
“The Palestinian people face one of the most dangerous periods in their history,” Abbas said.
In Gaza, he said, “Neighborhoods, cities, refugee camps, institutions, schools, universities, hospitals, mosques, and churches have been destroyed. Every foundation of life, and the future of entire generations, has been targeted.”
Though negotiations have not taken place for years, Abbas urged the international community to push for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and said Palestinians could live “alongside the state of Israel.”
Netanyahu has said no Palestinian state will be established while he is Israel’s leader and has argued that the Palestinian Authority is not a partner for peace.
“Saving the (two-state) solution begins with preserving the land on which the Palestinian state is to be established,” he said, referring to expanding Israeli settlements in the West Bank. “We do not want another process designed merely to manage the conflict while realities on the ground change every day."
Since 2005, Abbas has led the Palestinian Authority, which is the internationally recognized representative of the Palestinian people. But his support among Palestinians has withered during years of corruption and anger toward the authority's security cooperation with Israel.
Under Abbas, Palestine has been recognized as a country by a majority of U.N. member states. But on the ground in the West Bank, the mostly symbolic moves have not affected Israel’s decades long military occupation. Throughout the war in Gaza, Abbas and the authority have been largely sidelined from negotiations over the territory's postwar future.
The international community has instead backed President Donald Trump’s plan for a group of apolitical administrators to govern Gaza under the Board of Peace. Yet Abbas said the territory could not remain politically separate from the West Bank and east Jerusalem for the long term.
He said the Gaza Strip, east Jerusalem and the West Bank needed to be governed by “one state, one government, one law and one legitimate entity authorized to bear arms.”
The Palestinian Authority was created under a series of peace agreements with Israel in the 1990s and administers semiautonomous areas of the West Bank, while relying heavily on foreign aid.
It was ousted from Gaza after Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006 and violently seized control the following year. Abbas was elected to what was supposed to be a four-year term in 2005. The authority has not held presidential or legislative elections since 2006, though in his speech Abbas promised that both were on the horizon. Elections have long been demanded by international donor countries as preconditions for aid to the Palestinian Authority.
Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem in the 1967 war, and the Palestinians want both as part of their future state. The Palestinians and much of the international community view the settlements as illegal and as an obstacle to creating a viable, contiguous Palestinian state.
Abbas recorded the video on Wednesday.
Chairs for delegates from the state of Israel are unoccupied as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas speaks via pre-recorded video during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Likud party New Year event in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Chairs for delegates from the state of Israel are unoccupied as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas speaks via pre-recorded video during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas speaks via pre-recorded video after being denied a visa to attend in person during the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
