Hodgkinson prepared for 'nerve-wracking' return

BBC News

13-05-2025

Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson said her first race since winning gold in Paris last summer will be a "nerve-wracking one".A hamstring injury earlier this year delayed the 23-year-old's return to the track, but she is due to take part in the Diamond League event in Stockholm on 15 June.The women's 800m field features all eight of the top-ranked runners in the world, including fellow Brits Georgia Hunter-Bell and Jemma Reekie."I feel out of practice in a way, because by the time I do race it will be 10 months," she told BBC Sport."But it's nothing we haven't coped with before. It will be a challenge, the first race will be a nerve-wracking one because my last race I literally became Olympic champion. But I'm excited for it."Ethiopia's Tsige Duguma and Kenya's Mary Moraa, who won silver and bronze respectively in Paris, are both due to take part in the race.
On the high-quality field, Hodgkinson said: "When I saw the line-up it was the perfect motivation that I needed for the next six weeks. Having not competed in so long it almost seems so far away."Now I've got that extra motivator of who is going to be there. It is going to be a hard race, we want to come out on top, so we're working really hard towards that and the races to follow after that. "It's not going to be easy, it never is, but I'm looking forward to it."Hodgkinson was injured in February during her final training session before the Keely Klassic, a new athletics event in Birmingham which she founded.She said it had taken "a lot of time and patience" to let her hamstring recover properly, but there have been "no setbacks" since.Her primary aim this season remains winning gold at the World Championships in Tokyo in September, although she is also hoping to break the 1m54sec barrier for the 800m.She has previously said she has her sights on the world record of 1:53.28, which was set in 1983 by Czech athlete Jarmila Kratochvilova, but it appears that is more of a future aim."It's going to be hard in Tokyo, everyone is going to step it up as they do every year, the standard just gets higher and higher," Hodgkinson added."We're pushing the limits, we want to break the 1.54 barrier, hopefully this year, we'll see."But the main aim would be to win gold and whatever [time] that comes with would be amazing. Titles last forever."On Tuesday, Hodgkinson received her MBE at Windsor Castle from the Prince of Wales, which she described as a "real honour".Asked what they had spoken about during the ceremony, she said: "He [Prince William] said he remembered me winning last summer, and then my coach said that his kids are into athletics, so I said that if he needed any tips he knows where to go."