Keely Hodgkinson has been so dominant in the 800 meters that it would be easy to overlook her most recent triumph. She continues her relentless march towards Olympic gold in Paris next month with another race, another win, and an absolute devastation of the world’s best.
Her victory at the London Diamond League in 1 minute, 54.61 seconds, the fastest of her life, only served to solidify her place as one of the most popular gold medal favorites in the whole Olympic track and field competition. Nobody has ran an 800 meters that quickly since 2018—the year Caster Semenya won two gold medals at the Olympics. In fact, since the hazy 1980s, only two other athletes have ever run faster than Hodgkinson did in London on Saturday.
At the young age of 22, she is already making headway into conversations that few would have predicted, ones in which people begin to speculate as to whether the world record of 1.53:28, which has stood since 1983, would eventually be broken. Is this athlete on her way to become the fastest female 800m runner in history?
In response to a question concerning the likelihood of breaking Jarmila Kratochvilova’s world record, Hodgkinson stated, “We’re getting closer.” “Do I believe it can be beaten? Okay, I would answer that.
It would require a really unique race. However, [today] occurred. And maybe I’ll get a lot of time to try. Therefore, I believe it to be very plausible.
In contemporary sports, most athletes tend to restrict their public declarations to talking on race execution and ignoring the clock. This kind of outspoken bullishness is uncommon. Unlike Jemma Reekie (1.55:61) and Georgia Bell (1.56:28), who both ran enormous personal bests to climb up to second and third in this year’s world rankings, Hodgkinson led home a spectacular British 1-2-3.
Reekie, who was fourth at the past Olympics, is also very much in the running for a podium spot in Paris, where Bell will compete in the 1,500m. However, they were unable to respond as Hodgkinson quickly went through the home straight.
“I knew I could do that,” Hodgkinson remarked. “I’ve simply been struggling with a couple things along the road. I’ve simply been waiting for a significant chance to step in and deliver results quickly.
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