Keely Hodgkinson to race 800m at London Diamond League
Great Britain's Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson will race the 800m at the London Diamond League meeting in July.
The 23-year-old went unbeaten over the distance in 2024, winning European and Olympic titles and being crowned Sports Personality of the Year. She was the first Briton to win an Olympic 800m title for 20 years, since Dame Kelly Holmes in Athens, 2004.
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At the London Diamond League last year, which was her final outing before the Paris Games, Hodgkinson ran a 1:54.61 to set a British national record and move up four places to sixth on the all-time list — GB swept the podium that day, as Jemma Reekie and Georgia Bell (the latter is Hodgkinson's training partner at the Manchester-based M11 track club) finished second and third.
'I remember after last year's race thinking, 'Can we do that all over again?',' Hodgkinson said ahead of the July 19 meet. 'It was such a dream to compete in the Olympic stadium and I'm so excited to get back out there and see what I can do'.
It starts a big summer for Hodgkinson, who is targeting the World Championships in Tokyo in September. It was on that track in 2021 that she took her first senior global medal (800m Olympic silver) and she has finished second in her two World Championships appearances — behind USA's Athing Mu in Eugene, Oregon in 2022 and Mary Moraa beat her in Budapest, Hungary in 2023.
A world title and world record are the only two accolades missing from her trophy cabinet. Jarmila Kratochvilova's 1:53.28 still stands from 1983 and is the oldest track world record among the Olympic distances (for men and women).
'For me, that race (London Diamond League 2024) really set me up for what I did in Paris. I'm now an Olympic champion which is a pretty amazing thing to say out loud, but I still haven't won world gold, so I have really big goals this summer.
'Having that crowd behind me in London, plus a bunch of super-quick ladies to race against, will be the best possible preparation as I build towards the World Championships in Tokyo'.
Hodgkinson had targeted the indoor 800m world record and planned to try and break that in Birmingham in February — it was actually set on her birthday in 2002 — but she had to withdraw because of a hamstring injury.
She is part of a growing list of British talent set to race in the capital, with 1500m Olympic silver-medalist Josh Kerr lining up against world champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen.
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