Briton declares 1983 world record is in reach after superb win in Paris tune-up, while compatriot Hudson-Smith lowers European mark in 400m
So dominant has Keely Hodgkinson become over 800 metres that it would be easy enough almost to overlook her latest victory on the circuit. Another race, another win, another outright annihilation of the world’s best and another step on her unrelenting march towards Olympic gold in Paris next month.
This 1min 54.61sec triumph – the fastest of her life – at the London Diamond League only cemented her status as one of the hottest gold-medal favourites in the entire Olympic athletics programme. Not since 2018 – and the era of double Olympic champion Caster Semenya – has anyone run an 800m so fast. Indeed, only two other athletes since the murky days of the 1980s have ever run quicker than Hodgkinson did in London on Saturday.
At the age of just 22, she is rapidly venturing into the type of conversation that few thought possible; the kind where people start wondering whether a previously untouchable 1.53:28 world record that has stood since 1983 could soon fall. Are we witnessing the evolution of an athlete who could become the fastest female 800m runner ever?
“We’re getting closer,” said Hodgkinson, when asked about the possibility of surpassing Jarmila Kratochvilova’s world record mark. “Do I think it’s beatable? Now, I would say yes.
“It would take a very special race. But [today] happened. And hopefully I will have a long time to try. So yeah, I think it’s definitely possible.”
Such open bullishness is rare in modern athletics where most tend to limit their public proclamations to talk of race execution and ignoring the clock. Not so for Hodgkinson, who led home a remarkable British 1-2-3 ahead of Jemma Reekie (1.55:61) and Georgia Bell (1.56:28), both of whom ran huge personal bests to move second and third on this year’s world rankings.
After finishing fourth at the last Olympics, Reekie is now also firmly in the podium hunt for Paris, where Bell will contest the 1,500m. But they had no answer as Hodgkinson streaked clear down the home straight.
“I knew I was capable of that,” said Hodgkinson. “There’s just been a few things I’ve been battling along the way. I’ve just been waiting for a big opportunity to put my foot down and put out a really fast time.”
After claiming silver on her Olympic debut in Tokyo, Hodgkinson has since added two more silvers at successive World Championships. She credits her continued improvement to those repeated near-misses.
“I’ve found my proper determination this year,” she said. “Obviously, I’ve always been hungry for that gold but the Olympics comes round so rarely. I just remember walking off the track at worlds last year and going” ‘I am not coming second again’. If it happens, it happens, but I’m getting the most of myself every time that I train.”
Keely Hodgkinson after winning the Women’s 800m final, with Georgia Bell (left) and Jemma Reekie during the London Athletics Meet at the London Stadium.
Britain did not win a single athletics gold at the Tokyo Games, but Hodgkinson may have company atop the podium in Paris judging by Matthew Hudson-Smith’s performance in London.
Britain did not win a single athletics gold at the Tokyo Games, but Hodgkinson may have company atop the podium in Paris judging by Matthew Hudson-Smith’s performance in London.
The world 400m bronze and silver medallist had already clocked a European record 44.07sec this season, but made light work of surpassing that, easing down in the closing stages while still managing to triumph in 43.74sec. Like Hodgkinson, he will head to the French capital as the fastest in the world this year; indeed, only one other man has gone below 44 seconds.
“That’s exactly what me and my team were aiming for, to get the world lead in time for Paris,” he said. “I wrote 43.70 on a piece of paper before I left. I knew at 370m I had it in the bag so I eased down. I’ve got plenty more. I’m in good shape.
This is the first time in a long time I’ve come to a championships healthy. This meet last year I got taken off in a wheelchair with my Achilles [injury]. What a difference a year makes.”
Britain’s other world-leader, pole vaulter Molly Caudery, experienced an off-day, managing just 4.65m for third place. Dina Asher-Smith and Daryll Neita both clocked 200m season’s bests but could only finish third and fourth behind America’s Gabby Thomas. The British pair had earlier combined to help Britain’s 4x100m women match the national record 41.55sec.
Their male counterparts’ struggles continued as they failed to get the baton round six weeks after crashing out in the European heats.
World 100m champion Noah Lyles brought the curtain down on proceedings with a personal best 9.81sec, with British champion and college student Louie Hinchliffe in fourth.
