A smooth start to the World Indoors campaign for Keely Hodgkinson

The British 800m runner easily wins her heat in Torun but says she “hated” it.

Keely Hodgkinson showed on Friday morning (March 20) why she is one of the strongest favorites in any event at the World Indoor Championships in Poland. Controlling his 800m heat from the front, he ran clear in the final lap to win comfortably in 2:00.32.

It’s been 29 days since he set a world indoor record of 1:54.87 in Livin and the past month’s training seems to have gone well, judging by his performance on the first morning in Torun, although he admitted he didn’t enjoy the experience.

Hodgkinson clocked 60.06 for the 400m and 91.31 for the 600m before closing in on the competition.

Valentina Rosamilia from Switzerland was the runner-up with a time of 2:01.15.

“I hated it so much,” Hodgkinson said. “With heats, you just want to go through them, not mess them up and save energy.

“I’m glad it’s over. It was a little slower than we planned, but it got done, and that doesn’t matter.”

Hodgkinson also had to deal with losing Poland on the road, although he was finally reunited with it the night before the race.

Hodgkinson is expected to lead the way in the final, with the championship record of 1:56.90 held by Ludmila Formanova of the Czech Republic at stake.

Switzerland’s Audrey Verro, who is expected to be Hodgkinson’s closest challenger, was also impressive as she clocked 1:59.91.

In the women’s 400m, Lourdes Gloria Manuel of the Czech Republic led the qualifying round in 51.08 from Mette Baas, who set a Finnish record of 51.42, with Liek Claver of the Netherlands third fastest in 51.48.

Host nation hopes Natalya Bukovecka also qualified well in 51.60, but Britain’s Louise Stoney (52.24) and Yemi Mary John (52.28) were left out.

“I really enjoyed the experience and very proud to be there representing Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The goal was to do a little bit better than I did in that race, but I’m still going to enjoy every moment and be proud of where I’m at.”

John said: “Unfortunately, not the race I wanted. I was hitting the Egyptian on the break, which I’m not happy about. A bit of a hard drop at the end, but it’s only 400m.”