At 24 years old, Keely Hodgkinson has already collected the honors that define a champion's career: Olympic gold, World Indoor gold, European gold—four of them. But the British 800m runner has set her sights on something that has eluded the sport for over four decades: Jarmila Kratochvílova's women's 800m world record of 1:53.28 seconds, set in 1983. This summer, Hodgkinson plans to make her assault on that mark—the longest-standing world record in Olympic track and field—while defending her European title.
The timing of this ambition is no accident. After two injury-plagued seasons that derailed previous attempts, Hodgkinson has finally found the stability she needs. "I've been healthy for a year now," she told media from her Manchester base. "I've not missed a training session." That consistency paid immediate dividends indoors. In March, she set a new British indoor record of 1:54.87 seconds at a meet in Liévin, northern France—smashing a 1:55.82-second record that had stood since the day she was born, March 3, 2002. Just weeks later, at the World Indoor Championships in Torun, Poland, she won gold in a championship record time of 1:55.31 seconds, with a devastating 56.96-second first lap that left her rivals in her wake.
That performance capped an extraordinary night for British athletics. While Hodgkinson raced, fellow Briton Molly Caudery won pole vault gold, and training partner Georgia Hunter-Bell took the 1,500m. Hours later, Hodgkinson returned to the track for the 4x400m relay final, posting the fastest split in the field at 50.10 seconds—a deliberately sharpening of her speed work ahead of the outdoor season.
That speed development is deliberate. Hodgkinson's long-term strategy involves strengthening her 400m leg, which she views as crucial to breaking the 1:53.28-second barrier. Her outdoor season opens in Rome next week with a 400m race, a distance she hasn't competed at outside the UK for two years. She's targeting personal bests that could eclipse her current indoor mark of 51.49 seconds. Her coaches, Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows—herself a 2009 World Championship medalist in the 800m—are building what Hodgkinson calls "a speed block" that should converge with her 800m peak in the coming weeks.
"I've always considered myself a 400/800 type athlete," Hodgkinson said, with characteristic directness. "I don't think I've shown all my potential in the 400." She's eager to prove skeptics wrong. "Over the years people have been like, 'Keely's got no speed'. I'm like: Yes, I do!"
The chase for the 1:53.28 will likely play out in London at the Diamond League in July, where Hodgkinson ran a British record of 1:54.61 seconds last summer. Her teammate Josh Kerr will be targeting a different world record at the same meet—the mile. When asked about the prospect, Hodgkinson flashed a mischievous smile: "It might be a battle of the world records. Who can get a better one?" She was joking. But given her trajectory, her words might prove prophetic.