Keeley Hodgkinson’s coaches believe she is showing the form in training to challenge both indoor and outdoor world records in the 800m
After being named BBC Sports Personality of the Year, Keely Hodgkinson is already looking to break more records next season.
The 22-year-old, who became the Olympic 800m champion and went undefeated for two rounds all year, will appear at the Keely Klassic for the first time since the summerwhich will take place in Birmingham on February 15, 2025.
The purpose: To take down Jolanda Ceplak’s 800m indoor world record of 1:55.82.
Czeplak, who served a notably doping ban from 2007 to 2009, registered the mark on March 3, 2002, the same day Hodgkinson was born.
Shortly after the Paris Olympics, Hodgkinson ended his season with a minor hamstring injury before taking a well-deserved break.
Kelly Hodgkinson (BBC)
The Briton is now back in training and swapped his high-altitude camp in South Africa’s Potchefstroom for a red carpet at Salford’s Media City last night.
Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows, who coach Hodgkinson and 20 other elite athletes at the M11 Track Club, also won the BBC Sports Personality Couches of the Year award.
Meadows, a world and European medalist over 800m, believes anything is possible for the British middle distance runner over the next few years.
“We’ve seen all the hard work he’s been doing behind the scenes, and I just know this is going to be the start for Kiley,” Meadows told AW. “He has huge ambitions in the sport and he’s not going to stop there time until he wins at least one more gold medal at LA 2028. He’ll probably walk away from that, too.
“We feel like we know how Kelly can do the 800m indoors and outdoors. We know when to push and hold back, and we’ve tested some things in training as well , it always relies on consistency. The big goal in 2025 will be to win both the indoor and outdoor world championships in Tokyo. Sounds easy, right?”
Jenny Meadows with Trevor Pinter and Keeley Hodgkinson (Getty)
Meadows also says he believes Hodgkinson can best break Yarmila Kratochvilova’s outdoor record of 1:53.28, the oldest in the track and field books (1983), in 2026.
“It’s probably the right time for an outdoor world record in two years,” he added. 53 something in 2025 and hopefully we can continue into the future.”
Hodgkinson’s best times are 1:54.61 outdoors and 1:57.18 indoors, the former coming at the London Diamond League in July.
The artist echoes Meadows and is delighted that athletics has been the focus of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
In picking up the managers’ award, the pair now follow the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola.
Keely Hodgkinson with trainer Trevor Painter (Getty)
“It’s a bit worrying that Pep won it last year and Manchester City are in ruin this season,” Painter joked.
“It’s also great to have athletics really in the public eye and the sport is so well thought of in the country. An Olympic year always brings emotional moments and an Olympian usually wins it.”
Meadows added: “Many people say: I don’t think you take anything for granted, but I definitely had a moment when I saw Kelly (Holmes) and Jess (Ennis-Hill) going backstage.
“I just nudged Trevor without even looking at him to ask if he was OK if we won. It was just amazing to see so many of our athletes and Keeley’s family excited for us.”
Keeley Hodgkinson celebrates with Trevor Pinter (Getty)
However, The Times reports that Painter is set to meet British Athletics chiefs after taking a 62 per cent pay cut.
Previously, those coaching world medalists in the UK were paid a base rate of £20,000 a year and received a £20,000 bonus for every athlete they guided to the podium.
It is now £15,000 a year if their athlete wins a gold medal, excluding bonuses, and £7,500 for silver and bronze medalists.
Great Britain athletics also suffered an eight per cent cut in funding ahead of Los Angeles 2028, despite Great Britain securing 10 athletics medals at the Paris Olympics, athletics’ biggest since 1984.
The artist guided three athletes to the Olympic podium – Hodgkinson, Georgia Bell and Lewis Davy – in the French capital.
Trevor Pinter and Keeley Hodgkinson (Getty)
“Over the years that I’ve coached Jenny, we’ve built a system that’s self-sustaining,” Painter told AW. “There were times when Jenny didn’t get funding, so we had to do it our way.
“I think it stood us in good stead, working with Keeley. When she was a junior athlete, we were working the same way. Her silver medal in Tokyo brought Keeley riches and she’s tested it now We are getting what help we can from national governments, but ultimately we are trying to be self-sufficient.
Meadows, echoing Painter’s sentiments, added: “We have now tried to commercialize the M11 Track Club and that will hopefully give us the opportunity to work with some partners.
“If the funding is there from the national governing bodies, great, but if not, we can look at other sources of income. We want to keep doing what we’re doing and we’re still in shock after winning this award.”
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