Special 45 minutes
People are still talking “Super Saturday” that Saturday night at the London 2012 Olympics, when within an hour Dear Farah, Greg Rutherford and: Jess Ennis won gold medals. In Torun on Sunday evening, in 45 minutes, Teaching partners Georgia Hunter Bell, Keeley Hodgkinson and Molly Codery all won gold medals.
There was great anticipation from the British point of view. It was a very mixed bag Team GB is 27 athletes, but 9 of them in their first senior international championships. Most were here for the experience, and there’s nothing wrong with that, and several potential medalists chose not to do the indoor training. After all, as Chase Jackson told us earlier in the weekend, the closed season can cut your winter break short.
It was the first Molly Cooder, Word champion in 2024, before reaching the Paris Olympics without a height. He went to the Tokyo World Championship only to get injured during the warm-up. To say his confidence was knocked was an understatement. You’d never know it in Torun. Thirteen archers prepared for a long competition. Molly went from a 4.35 (a deliberately low starting bar to boost her confidence) to a 4.80 with a perfect card. Then there were two. Tina Sutey also reached 4.80 with no failures. Molly cleared 4.85 on her second attempt. Tina had three failures.
Molly “Six weeks ago I couldn’t get off the ground and I was in a dark place. To come here today and do this means more than anyone knows, after Paris and Tokyo and last year, it’s just a relief. I have a great team around me and that makes a huge difference. Coming back from Tokyo was tough, not only did I feel so good physically. It was just a joy to be with Tina at 4.80 for so long, but to win outright was great.
Georgia Hunter-Bell went in 1500. Ethiopia’s Birke Hailom broke away quickly and opened up a big lead, but paid the price as the others turned on her. Hunter Bell won in a world-leading 3:58.53. behind him Jessica Hull held a regional record, Agathe Guillemot national record Nikki Hiltz PR. none of them are enough to get close to Georgia.
Georgia “I really wanted to get over the pressure of being the favorite and make it, I’ve failed before. I’m really happy with how the race went. from start to finish. I was really inspired when I saw Josh finish it. I was at the stadium to watch. I much prefer a fast race. When I caught Haylom I knew I could win and I made a big decision. split second.”
Keeley Hodgkinson had broken the world record a month earlier and was the hot favorite in the program. He won in 1:55.30 Audrey Verreau (national record) and: Addison Wiley (PR). Since he had an hour to spare after the race, Kelly went back and ran the relay. He summed up the experience. “It’s so, so nice to be able to run and win. This is my first world title. I’ve been to a lot of finals, I’ve been favorite so many times and I haven’t won, so to do this and prove to myself that I can do it, take the pressure off and win the gold, it’s good. I just ran 50 second repeats and really wanted to split myself. I have a great training group and we work hard and we are both in the shape of our lives.
