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The Independent
7 hours ago
- Sport
- The Independent
When could Keely Hodgkinson return to track after latest injury setback?
Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson will not compete at the Stockholm Diamond League on Sunday after another injury setback. The 2024 BBC Sports Personality of the Year has been suffering with a hamstring injury since February. The injury forced her to pull out of her own event, the Keely Klassic, where she was due to attempt to break the 800m indoor world record. The middle-distance runner suspected her recovery would take up to six weeks and was due to return to the track for the seventh Diamond League event of 2025, her first competitive outdoor appearance of the year. However, this setback only further delays her return. But what does this mean for the 23-year-old and how will this impact the rest of her season? Although no official time scale has been placed upon her comeback, there is now serious doubt over whether she will be fit enough to race in several major upcoming events. Hodgkinson was next due to race in the Prefontaine Classic in Oregon at the start of July, but she will also want to be the start line at the sold out London Diamond League meet two weeks later. The main target for the British star, though, is to race at the World Championships in Tokyo in September, where she will bid to become victorious at this event for the first time. The Stockholm meet would have seen her face fierce rivals from Paris: silver medalist Tsige Duguma from Ethiopia, who currently sits at the top of the DL standings, and bronze medalist Mary Moraa from Kenya, who currently holds the World Championship title And Hodgkinson could be lacking the same formal race experience heading into her pursuit to clinch the world title she would desperately love to attach her name to.
BBC News
13-05-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Hodgkinson prepared for 'nerve-wracking' return
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 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 said it had taken "a lot of time and patience" to let her hamstring recover properly, but there have been "no setbacks" 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 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."
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Sarah earns Aussie top Billings in Diamond League
Sarah Billings has come perilously close to breaking the Australian 800 metres record as she enjoyed another breakthrough two-lap outing at the latest Diamond League meeting in China. Following her third place in the 1000m in the previous week's meeting in Xiamen, the improving Melbourne athlete finished runner-up in the 800m at the Shanghai-Keqiao meet on Saturday, clocking a new lifetime best of 1 minute 57.83 seconds as she chased home Ethiopian winner Tsige Duguma. The 27-year-old's time was just five-hundredths of a second outside Catriona Bisset's national mark of 1:57.78, set in London six years ago, as she powered through the pursuing pack to become just the second Australian woman to crack the 1:58 barrier. 🇪🇹 Ethiopian record 🇪🇹Tsige Duguma delivers a world lead, a meeting record and a national record with 1:56.64 in the women's 800m#KeqiaoDL🇨🇳#DiamondLeague📸@matthewquine — Wanda Diamond League (@Diamond_League) May 3, 2025 "I couldn't be happier! I've been picked for the world championships in the 1500m already, so that's still the main goal, but that was pretty close to the national record, so I'm really happy," said Billings, who knocked over a second off her best of 1:58.94 but was no match for 24-year-old Duguma's new Ethiopian record of 1:56.64. "I had a really clear race plan, I just wanted to go really hard at 300m to go. My coach Nic (Bideau) told me this morning that gaps open up with 100m to go on the inside and to watch for it. I watched for it and some opened up," Billings said. She wasn't the only Australian woman on the podium, with the brilliant high jump duo of runner-up Nicola Olyslagers and third-placed Eleanor Patterson again having to give best to Ukraine's Olympic champion and world record holder Yaroslava Mahuchikh. Olyslagers cleared 1.98m on her second attempt to finish ahead of Patterson (1.95m) but Mahuchikh's 2.00m clearance again put her on top as it had in Xiamen. "The competition today was a big improvement from last week. I enjoyed it! Today I had courage and I am thankful for that," said Olympic double silver medallist Olyslagers. "This is the first time I have started my season a bit later, so every jump of course I want to be over two metres and getting personal bests, but I have great faith that God will get me ready. I don't worry about the past, I just go forward." Olympic and world champion Armand Duplantis soared 6.11 metres to win the pole vault as usual, but missed out on his single crack at a world record attempt at 6.28m. Australian Kurtis Marschall cleared 5.72m to claim fourth place. Matthew Clarke clocked 8:28.86 for 10th place in the 3000m steeplechase while Mackenzie Little (NSW) was ninth in the javelin with a 56.85m throw. Rising middle-distance prospect Jude Thomas marked his Diamond League debut over 5000m by finishing 16th in 13:32.99. International performance of the night was American Cordell Tinch becoming the fourth fastest high hurdler of all time as he scorched to victory in 12.87 seconds. South African Akani Simbine backed up his win in Xiamen last week by running down Olympic silver medallist Kishane Thompson in the last few strides to win the 100m in 9.98 seconds. Karsten Warholm, who ran a world best time in the 300m hurdles in Xiamen, confirmed his fine form by dominating the more familiar 400m in 47.28. With Reuters
