{"id":19911,"date":"2026-05-29T06:43:40","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T06:43:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/29\/keely-hodgkinson-interview-why-this-summer-is-about-the-800m-world-record-and-defending-her-european-crown-the-new-york-times\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T06:43:40","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T06:43:40","slug":"keely-hodgkinson-interview-why-this-summer-is-about-the-800m-world-record-and-defending-her-european-crown-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/05\/29\/keely-hodgkinson-interview-why-this-summer-is-about-the-800m-world-record-and-defending-her-european-crown-the-new-york-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Keely Hodgkinson interview: Why this summer is about the 800m world record and defending her European crown &#8211; The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Olympics<br \/>Keely Hodgkinson during the 4x400m Relay Final at the World Indoors in March<!-- --> <span class=\"Article_ImageCredit__2YNda inherit Typography_base__T6j8f\">Dan Mullan\/Getty Images<\/span><br \/>Keely Hodgkinson is chasing greatness. Already at 24 she has run her way into the middle-distance pantheon: Olympic gold. Tick. World Indoor gold. Tick. The 800m short track world record. Tick. European gold. She\u2019s got four of them.<br \/>But champions tend to have a brazen level of ambition. The Briton, who sits sixth on the women\u2019s 800m all-time list, is laser-focused on taking down the longest-standing world record of the Olympic track disciplines: Jarmila Kratochv\u00edlova\u2019s 1:53.28s two-lap run from 1983.<br \/>Advertisement<br \/>\u201cWe\u2019ve obviously got a plan A of what we\u2019d like to happen,\u201d she says over video call to various UK media, including <em>The Athletic<\/em>.<br \/>\u201cIf I come into shape and want to go at it sooner, or it happens to be a bit later in the season, that could just be how it goes,\u201d she adds. \u201cI\u2019m very happy with where I\u2019m at, building on the indoor season. I\u2019ve been healthy for a year now. I\u2019ve not missed a training session.\u201d<br \/>Plan A has worked thus far. She suffered injuries early in the calendar year in the past two seasons. That caused disruption, including a hamstring problem that forced postponement of her planned 800m indoor world record attempt last February.<br \/>One year on and fully fit, she cracked it, having opened up with a 1:56.33s run for the British indoor title \u2014 the fifth-fastest time ever indoors \u2014 before heading to Lievin, northern France, five days later. There she smashed a record as old as her. Hodgkinson was born on March 3 2002, the same day that Jolanda Ceplak ran 1:55.82s in Austria, finishing three-hundredths ahead of home favourite Stephanie Graf.<br \/>Hodgkinson flew out over the opening 200m in Lievin, gapping a field that featured bona-fide athletes in Tsige Duguma and Audrey Werro <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7058550\/2026\/02\/19\/keely-hodgkinson-breaks-800m-world-record\/\">en route to clocking 1:54.87s<\/a> \u2014 a run that was almost a full second quicker than Ceplak.<br \/>\u201cI\u2019m very grateful to be able to do the things that I\u2019ve been wanting to do for the last two years in training,\u201d she says. Winning a world title was another \u201cthing\u201d. She took bronze at last September\u2019s World Championships in Tokyo \u2014 placing behind training partner Georgia Hunter-Bell \u2014 in what was only her fifth race of an injury-hit season. She\u2019d made her third podium in as many World Championship appearances but wanted the crown to complete the set.<br \/>That came this March at World Indoors in Torun, Poland. She blitzed the field again. \u201cThere\u2019s other people in the race, I want to respect them and also make sure that I win too,\u201d she says amid all the world record talk. But Hodgkinson made the race into a time trial in Torun, splitting 56.96s at halfway and striding clear of Werro once more. She won in a championship record time (1:55.31s).<br \/>Advertisement<br \/>It proved worth the wait. That night Hunter-Bell won the 1,500m final and fellow Brit Molly Caudery jumped 4.85m to prevail&nbsp;in the pole vault. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7138966\/2026\/03\/22\/hodgkinson-hunter-bell-caudery-great-britain-gold-world-championships\/\">Great Britain had a Super Sunday with three gold medals in less than half an hour<\/a>.<br \/>Then Hodgkinson came back out to partake in the women\u2019s 4x400m final, and dropped the quickest split in the field (50.10s). Getting better over one lap outdoors is part of the plan to make 2026 like 2024, a season in which Hodgkinson went unbeaten, winning Olympic and European gold and running a British record (1:54.61s) at the London Diamond League.<br \/><iframe id=\"datawrapper-chart-k18ad\" style=\"width: 0; min-width: 100% !important; border: none;\" title=\"Hodgkinson, sixth all-time, holds two of the 10 fastest-ever 800m runs\" src=\"https:\/\/datawrapper.dwcdn.net\/k18ad\/2\/\" height=\"636\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" aria-label=\"Table\" data-external=\"1\"><\/iframe><script type=\"text\/javascript\">(function(){function e(){window.addEventListener(`message`,function(e){if(e.data[`datawrapper-height`]!==void 0){var t=document.querySelectorAll(`iframe`);for(var n in e.data[`datawrapper-height`])for(var r=0,i;i=t[r];r++)if(i.contentWindow===e.source){var a=e.data[`datawrapper-height`][n]+`px`;i.style.height=a}}})}e()})();<\/script><br \/>\u201cIt\u2019s the main thing I\u2019m looking forward to this year,\u201d she says of racing again in the capital this July. Josh Kerr, GB\u2019s leading middle-distance man, is targeting a takedown of the mile world record there \u2014 Hicham El Guerrouj\u2019s 3:43.13s has stood since 1999.<br \/>A mischievous smile appears on Hodgkinson\u2019s face. \u201cIt might be a battle of the world records. Who can get a better one?\u201d She clarifies that she\u2019s joking, but those words might end up to be prophetic.<br \/>Before then there\u2019s more work to be done. Her outdoor season will open in Rome next week over 400m, a distance she has not raced outside of the UK for two years. \u201cThe lineup is crazy, I\u2019m really throwing myself in the deep end there. But I think it\u2019s good to put myself in a position where, on paper, I\u2019m going in slowest and up against girls who (are) world finalists and medalists.\u201d<br \/>Bettering her personal best of 51.49s, run indoors this March, seems an inevitability. \u201cWe\u2019ve been able to put together a speed block that we hope is going to come together with my 800 in a few weeks. It\u2019s all a process,\u201d she explains, referencing the preparations with coaches Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows (an 800m World Championship medallist in 2009) at M11 Track Club in Manchester, her home city.<br \/>Advertisement<br \/>\u201cI\u2019ve always considered myself a 400\/800 type athlete,\u201d Hodgkinson says.\u201dI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve shown all my potential in the 400 and I got a bit of a glimpse of what I could do indoors. I\u2019m still very much learning the event.<br \/>\u201cHopefully bringing down that 400 time, it\u2019s going to make that 800 feel nice. Over the years people have been like, \u2018Keely\u2019s got no speed\u2019. I\u2019m like: Yes, I do!\u201d<br \/>She speaks as honestly as she runs. \u201cGive me that f***ing baton and I\u2019ll give you a 50-point (split)\u201d she told reporters in the mixed zone at World Indoors. When it was announced that a bid for the 2029 World Championships in London could be derailed by West Ham refusing to give up the Olympic Stadium for two weeks, Hodgkinson stated that GB \u201cwill bring back more medals than West Ham have seen in their entire history\u201d.<br \/>As with Kerr, it\u2019s easy to misperceive her self-belief and ambition as arrogance. \u201cI am actually really passionate about it. We will fill that stadium every single day,\u201d she says defiantly. \u201cThat would be amazing, inspiring the next generation and putting athletics out there.\u201d<br \/>Deep down there\u2019s a soft side to her. She cried tears of relief after claiming Olympic gold two summers ago, becoming the first Brit to win that event since Kelly Holmes in 2004. Last year she spoke candidly about the emotional toll of her injuries and, before that, how she dealt with post-Olympic blues after winning silver as a teenager at the 2021 Tokyo Games. What hasn\u2019t killed her made her stronger, with plenty of cycling and weights in the gym to improve her robustness.<br \/>It\u2019s just that she loves to win, and Hodgkinson has ample opportunity to do that this summer. Halfway through the 2028 Olympic cycle, the European Championships come to England (Birmingham specifically) for the first time. She\u2019s opting against racing at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, and is qualified via her Olympic win for the inaugural World Ultimate Championships in Budapest, Hungary, this September.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI split the season up into two halves in my mind: through the Diamond League season, get to London, then the second half comes with all the Championships.\u201d Records first, then medals. It\u2019s to her credit that Hodgkinson runs major championships as successfully as circuit races, avoiding any banana skins in the qualifying rounds and producing gun-to-tape performances in the final to take medals on her own terms.<br \/>Advertisement<br \/>\u201cIt\u2019s cool to be able to defend a title,\u201d she says of her European crown. She\u2019s targeting three more to tie Laura Muir, who holds the most ever (seven over 1,500m and 3,000m distances). Another goal is to break 50 seconds for 400m and run a sub-four-minute 1,500m. The only other woman to manage that, plus run a sub-two 800m, is Caster Semenya.<br \/>\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to challenging myself. My body is coping,\u201d Hodgkinson says, her words laden with gratitude, remembering how quickly the glory of 2024 became turmoil a year later.<br \/>But she allows herself to dream. \u201cI would love to have that world record on home soil.\u201d<br \/>Spot the pattern. Connect the terms<br \/>Find the hidden link between sports terms<br \/>Play today&#x27;s puzzle<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/rss\/articles\/CBMingFBVV95cUxOMzEweFVFWlZmVHNFOEM5c052bGE3ZWR0ZG9id3FSTDFRVXF2TDluRy1uUGl1VV80QkZZQUtCZ0tsVEJUMmR6UEpra29CN3lCWjRYZ09YYk9jdmdNTzlsbDlndWQ4R2Y1Wm1EVVpRM3ZJNjZZTXZ5ZEdWOG5lNzNtaHNuZGRHOWlGM1RWZFA0Z1dNWEI5SlktbnhMa3REUQ?oc=5\">source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OlympicsKeely Hodgkinson during the 4x400m Relay Final at the World Indoors in March Dan Mullan\/Getty ImagesKeely Hodgkinson is chasing greatness. Already at 24 she has run her way into the middle-distance pantheon: Olympic gold. Tick. World Indoor gold. Tick. The 800m short track world record. Tick. European gold. She\u2019s got four of them.But champions tend [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}