Even by Keely Hodgkinson’s standards this was astonishing. The Olympic 800m gold medallist had not raced for 376 days due to a series of hamstring problems. Yet on a blistering hot day in Poland she marked her return by destroying a quality field in 1min 54.74sec – the fastest time in the world this year by nearly two seconds.
Hodgkinson’s effort was also the ninth fastest in history and it was perfect timing, given the world championships in Tokyo starts in a month.
