Her coach Trevor Painter talks about the 12 races that have shaped Hodgkinson’s 2024, leading to the promised land of Olympic glory.
For Keeley Hodgkinson, the start of the athletics year usually revolves around the indoor season, which her coaching team, Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows, like to use to “break the winter monotony” and “work a lot more on intensity and speed.”
With the biggest summer of her life on the horizon, however, knee and hamstring injuries ruled out the 22-year-old competing in front of her home crowd at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow.
It was one of several hurdles to overcome on the way to Paris, where everything was fine on the night for the 800m star, who emulated one of her heroes, Kelly Holmes, by becoming the Olympic champion over the two-lap distance. .
It was a performance that did much to earn her your vote as British Female Sportswoman of the Year at the 2024 AW Readers’ Awards, but there were other highlights and milestones along the way in a campaign in which Hodgkinson raced a total of 12 times, winning all of them.He competed in the 800 m.
The artist sat down to talk through the summer, race by race, and how each played a part on the road to gold.
Kelly Hodgkinson (Getty)
Savona International Meeting (May 15)
400m – 51.61
“It was the first time since 2020 that Kelly didn’t have a closed season and if we had a few more weeks we would have been in Glasgow,” Painter said we knew he was healthy and ready to go.
“Due to injury restrictions, we weren’t able to do really fast things and had to park for a while. It gave us the opportunity to work a lot deeper on aspects like strength and conditioning.
“We went into the summer with a much bigger base and luckily the speed was still there as he opened the year with a 400m PB so we must have done something right.
“He doesn’t get a lot of chances to run the 400m, so you just pray for a fast track and good weather, but of course, just as the athletes went to the blocks, it started raining. ‘Are you serious?'” Kelly snapped second place, huh? The winner of the race, Charlene Maudsley, went on to run some really fast runs. Keely wasn’t too far behind her, so if she had had more of a chance in the 400m I think she would have run under 51 at some point in the summer.” :
Keeley Hodgkinson at the Prefontaine Classic (Getty)
Prefontaine Classic, Eugene (May 25)
800m – 1:55.78
“I was expecting Keely to run 1:55. Training was going well and it was just to get him back on the track because he hadn’t done an 800m since last September. “Just run the first lap at 57.5. That’ll probably put you in fourth or fifth, then do the last 300 meters and see what happens.”
“It went perfectly. The athletes in front went a little too fast. He nailed that last 150 meters. Immediately we knew that the Paris gold was on the cards. Ating Moon was still there.” “He is, isn’t he (running in the Olympic Games)? Which page is he on?” but we knew (world champion) Mary Moraa was a tough opponent to beat and Kelly didn’t get it right a few times, so it was important to make sure we won it.
“Mary used to win tactical races, but when Ating and Kelly set foot, Mary couldn’t break 1:56 at the end of the day, while Keely and Ating did it a few times. We know that if it’s fast.” is a gun race then the odds are in our favor but tactically if more things happen we need to make sure the tactics are right We did it there so it took the pressure off Keeley so he could focus on the rest of the summer.
“He’s very intuitive. We never say. “This is what you have to do in the race,” but he goes in there knowing very well what can happen, and then he just has to pick the right thing, pick the right story. .
“One of Keeley’s greatest strengths is his composure under pressure, and he thrives on that. You see a lot of people disappear when it comes to racing, while Keeley lives for that gladiatorial experience.”
Kelly Hodgkinson (Getty)
European Championship, Rome (June 10, 11, 12)
800 m – 2:02.46 (heat), 1:58.07 (semifinal), 1:58.65 (final)
“He was just chilling in the heat and then he ran 1:58. It was unbelievable. He came off the track and said, We said: “Okay, it will be okay.” But then the next day he woke up not feeling well (sore throat, headache and cold symptoms) and it was a struggle to run. We didn’t even know he was going to run until we were called into the call room and he said . “I’ll go for it.”
“For Kiley, it’s not about winning money and things like that, it’s about titles and he wants to finish his name with as many decorations as possible. He wanted to win that championship and he did really well in the final.”
Keeley Hodgkinson at Manchester (The River)
British Championship, Manchester (June 29, 30)
400m – 52.06 (heat), 52.22 (final)
“There were some decent performances in the Champions League and there’s a myth about the north that you can’t run fast there. Manchester is often cold and wet and that’s where the problem is with the people who come there to race. they don’t enjoy it. We train on that track quite often, so it’s not a problem for us.
“We were hoping to have a faster time and take that 400m PB again, but Kelly was still feeling some of the effects of the illness from Rome and running 52.06 in the heat caught her by surprise as she ended up as fastest qualifier and back to the first zone of the final. It is impossible to run faster than 400m in the first lane and you have no advantage.
“He needed a bit of luck, but the three times he ran the 400m at the Nationals, he went eight lanes twice and one time. It’s like the 400m gods don’t want him to do that.”
FBK Games, Hengelo (July 7)
800m – 1:57.36
“We were hoping for another 1:55 and to make a statement, but the weather was not ideal for running fast. Then it went to London really make a statement.”
Georgia Bell, Keely Hodgkinson and Gemma Rickey (Getty)
London Athletics Meeting (July 20)
800m – 1:54.61 (British record)
“I spoke to Kiley and said, “You can win the gold here, not in Paris. If you do your job right here and go under 1:55 on this track, everyone will just let you do what you want in Paris.” , it came to life.
“He stuck with the race and I think he went around 56.5 and then 58 for the second lap. That was good information for us because we’ve been following everyone all season and everyone who ran was 56 seconds for the first lap, didn’t break 60, so going into Paris we knew we could go 56 and then 58. Also the pacemaker It went very quickly in London, so Keely did more or less the work himself. We were sure that would be the story in Paris as well.”
Kelly Hodgkinson (Getty)
Paris Olympic Games (August 2, 4, 5)
800 m – 1:59.31 (heat), 1:56.86 (semifinal), 1:56.72 (final)
“Kelly wanted to go out and put on a show. He was still excited about the 1:54 in London, and he came off the track that day saying he felt 1:53 was possible. If you’re in the championship, feeling like you’re in 1:53 form (the world record is 1:53.28) and all the stats back it up, then you’re in a pretty good place.
“So he wanted to put on a show in the final, but Jenny and I said, “You don’t have to run 1:53, let’s make sure the gold. If you want to run 1:53, you have to run the first lap in 55 seconds and then deal with that, but if you want to just win the Olympics, 1. 56 or 1:55 will do it for you.
“It was nerve-wracking that he went 400m in 58. I saw the clock and thought, ‘Oh, crazy’ because it just opens the door for other people. If it was 56 , Keely would be pulled on the back straight and the last 200 meters would be a march.Unfortunately, we didn’t have that luxury. We had to wait until the last 80 meters when he put his foot down so we could rest.
“I’m usually really chilled. I know how the athletes are and I just enjoy the moment and try to remember as much as I can. But for this one, I was a mess for the 300m.”
Keeley Hodgkinson and her parents (Getty)
Next chapter…
“We’re very proud of Kiley. To have the world in your hands like that and to go in as the favorite, especially at the Olympics, to hold it together like he did is fantastic.
“He wanted to do big time at the end of the season, but he felt his hamstring a bit before the final and then he went to Marbella for a few days with the family, so he didn’t have physio for a week and I couldn’t.” It was a bit too much trouble to fix in a short amount of time, so we decided to close the season at that point.
“He would love to go to the Diamond League final and win a third, but we’ll just have to wait until next year (for that). Because the schedule has changed and the World Championship is the end of the season, it means the races you do before the championship, hopefully where you put your bar down, then you get a target on your back. We just have to keep him happy and healthy and put him in a position to do as well perform”.
» This feature first appeared in the December issue of AW magazine. Subscribe to AW Magazine herecheck out our new podcast! here or subscribe to our digital archive of back issues from 1945 to the present day here
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