Keely Hodgkinson smashed the women’s 800m indoor record by almost a second to extend the Olympic champion’s blazing start to the 2026 season.
Crossing the finish line in 1:54.87, Hodgkinson looked supreme en route to victory at the prestigious World Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Lievin.
Days after a stunning world-leading 800m run of 1:56.33 at the UK Indoor Championships heats, Hodgkinson bowed out of the final to instead focus on taking down Jolanda Ceplak’s mark of 1:55.82, which has stood for 24 years and coincidentally occurred on Hodgkinson’s birthday.
But that decision, to preserve her body for tonight’s audacious attempt, proved a smart one, with Thursday’s effort ensuring a revision of the record books and a precious addition to what is an already glittering resume.
“Thank god,” remarked an out-of-breath Hodgkinson moments after gathering herself, having collapsed after crossing the finish line. “That was fun. I’ve been looking forward to this for a few weeks. Merci.”
Hodgkinson came through 400m in 56.01 seconds, and hit the bell lap at 1:25.06 well ahead of the required pace, with her final 200m clocked at 29.81 seconds.
After Olympic gold and silver medals, as well as two silvers and a bronze at World Championships, Hodgkinson now has the indoor world record, completing an impressive response to what was a disappointing 2025 by her exceptionally high standards.
After struggling with injury in the build-up to last summer, Hodgkinson was forced to settle for bronze at the Tokyo World Championships, behind training mate Georgia Hunter Bell, who clinched silver.
But without an Olympic Games or World Championships this year, the 23-year-old has targeted time goals with a sizzling run in Lievin, the first statement run of her year.
After sensibly negotiating months of training with her “healthiest winter for years”, Hodgkinson insists she has “nothing holding me back” ahead of the World Indoor Championships in Poland next month.
“I've been very vocal about wanting to break it,” Hodgkinson said after her tune-up on Saturday in Birmingham. “I feel like it's my record to take.”
In a packed field, including Ethiopia’s Olympic silver medallist Tsige Duguma, Switzerland’s European U23 champion Audrey Werro and world indoor silver medallist Nigist Getachew, also of Ethiopia, Hodgkinson had the competition required to push her to new limits.
And, following Poland’s 4x400m international Anna Gryc as the pacemaker, she backed up her run last weekend by expertly clicking off the laps before storming to victory in a new world record, 0.95 seconds ahead of the previous mark.
Werro finished second in 3.51 seconds back in 1:58.38, with Duguma third in 1:58.83 and Getachew fourth with a personal best of 1:59.54.
Her next priority will be a gold medal at the World Indoor Championships next month, while a shot at the women’s 800m outdoor world record, standing at a daunting 1:53.28, is sure to follow.
Set by Czechoslovakia's Jarmila Kratochvílová in 1983, it remains the longest-standing, individual outdoor world record in athletics history, with Hodgkinson’s personal best set at 1:54.61.
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