The middle distance runner secured Britain’s third gold medal in half an hour in Torun with the second-fastest indoor time in history.
The question was not so much whether Keeley Hodgkinson would win the women’s 800m at the world indoor championships on Sunday (March 22), but by how much.
It always seems premature to hang a gold medal around an athlete’s neck before they compete, but the 24-year-old is in such rich form that it was hard to see any other outcome.
As expected, he controlled the pace from the front too, covering the 200m in 27.26, the 400m in 56.95 and the 600m in 86.46 before coming home in 1:55.30, a time that has only been beaten once indoors by Hodgkinson himself when. he set a world record of 1:54.87 in Liewyn a month ago.
Everyone else was in contention for second place, with Audrey Vero best of the rest with a Swiss record of 1:56.64 as USA’s Addison Wiley took bronze with a PB of 1:58.36.
“I wanted to let loose and make everyone work, work hard,” Hodgkinson said of her 800m victory. “And who knows, maybe another day, without two races on my legs, I’d have the world record again.”
Instead, she took down Lyudmila Formanova’s championship record and has now collected a grand slam of major medals: Olympics, Commonwealth Games, plus worlds and Europeans, indoors and outdoors.
Impressively, Hodgkinson returned less than an hour later to run a 50.1 relay on the anchor leg of the 4x400m final, although even she could not save Britain on the occasion as the team of Tess McHugh, Dina Usher-Smith and Louise Stoney finished fifth behind the United States, Spain and Holland.
She also spent some time between the 800m and 4x400m, celebrating with British gold medalists Georgia Hunter Bell and Molly Codery.
“A lot has happened in the last hour, it all seems a bit of a blur to me,” he said. “It’s so, so nice to be able to run and win. This is my first world title.
“I just split 50 seconds in the relay and I’m really impressed with myself. I really wanted to do it.
“I have a great training group. Me and Georgia work hard and we push each other in every practice. both are our way of life. It’s great to have someone who can challenge me during training. I’m really thankful for our friendship, our competition and our training.”
Next on the agenda is the European Championship in Birmingham and a potential tilt Yarmila Kratochvilova’s long-standing outdoor world record of 1:53.28 this summer.
