Keely Hodgkinson is banking on it being “fourth time lucky” when she chases a long-awaited first world title this weekend.
Having come agonisingly close to gold in three outdoor world championships, earning two silvers and a bronze, the Olympic champion makes her world indoors debut in Torun, Poland as the overwhelming favourite.
One month on from obliterating the short track 800m world record in Lievin, Hodgkinson is widely expected to coast to victory.
Training has gone smoothly, the injuries that shredded her 2025 consigned to the past. Yet previous heartbreaks mean nothing will be taken for granted in a field where Switzerland’s Audrey Werro looks the closest challenger despite being almost three seconds off Hodgkinson’s new mark of 1:54.87.
“It’s the one medal I don’t have, it’d be really great to box that one off,” she said on Thursday. “I’m happy to make the start line and until I cross the finish line I’m not going to jinx anything. I’m excited to compete. The competition looks great, we’ll see what happens.”
The most daunting element is running on three consecutive days. Hodgkinson has never enjoyed going through the rounds, feeling apprehensive about the jeopardy of a slight tactical misstep or accident scuppering her progress.
“Fast times are really great but championships are completely different,” she added. “Having three rounds in three days is another curveball that’s really tough. I’ve done it before but I’d quite like to have a day off if that’s OK.”
“This month has been really great and I couldn’t ask to be in a better position to be honest. Training’s gone really well. I’m very happy with where I am. Me and Georgia [Hunter-Bell, her team-mate] were talking the other day and we’d be quite happy if this was outdoors right now. Very unfortunate to be that [fit].”
Few were surprised by last month’s world record. Hodgkinson and her team, led by coaches Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows, had made it clear that eclipsing Jolanda Ceplak’s previous mark, set on the day Hodgkinson was born in 2002, was the ambition.
However Hodgkinson said that the goal was not nailed down until her fitness became clear throughout the winter.
“I did think it was very much possible,” she said. “When I started my preparations for indoors I didn’t set goals. I said to my coach, ‘I don’t want to know where you want me or when you want me to race, I just want to get through each week and see how it goes, enjoy the process of getting fit and see how far we could go in training.’
“The closer we got to the date I knew this was on, I could do this. I was just hoping and praying because last year I tore my hamstring two days out from when I wanted to attack it. I was grateful to make it to the start line and be in a position to put something like that together and come away with it.
“I really believed in myself that day. I knew it was going to happen it was case of what the time was going to be.”
It is not quite making up for lost time, more a release of frustration following the injuries that ruined the majority of last year, and Hodgkinson is certain those struggles have made her a more resilient athlete.
“It was draining on the mind, a lot of frustrations,” she said. “But looking back now I wouldn’t change any of it. I learnt a lot about myself. I had time off the track to enjoy my life and it’s made me a better athlete. Frustrating at the time but I wouldn’t change anything.”
While world indoors is a new challenge, Arena Torun is a familiar venue. A teenage Hodgkinson won European gold here in 2021 and she is trying to reactivate that youthful spirit this season.
“I’m embracing my 19-year-old, fearless, doesn’t think too much, just turns up kind of attitude,” she said. “It’s working for me and I’m having fun. Competition brings so many different things, you don’t actually know what’s going to happen. That’s the exciting thing about a global championships.”
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