Keely Hodgkinson continued her remarkable return from injury as she smashed a 23-year-old meeting record in her last race before the World Championships.
The Olympic champion destroyed the rest of the 800 metres field at Wednesday night’s Diamond League event in the Swiss city of Lausanne, winning in a rapid 1min 55.69sec despite the wet conditions.
Hodgkinson’s time bettered the previous Lausanne best of 1:56.25 set by Maria Mutola in 2002.
And it was the second fastest time in the world this year – behind only the 1:54.74 she ran in Silesia, Poland on Saturday in her first race since striking gold in Paris last summer.
‘It was a shame about the weather, but I was really happy to run that in those conditions,’ admitted a drenched Hodgkinson.
The 23-year-old finished more than a second and a half clear of home favourite Audrey Werro, while her British team-mate and training partner Georgia Hunter Bell was third in 1:57.55.
Keely Hodgkinson claimed victory in her last race before the World Championships
The British star destroyed the rest of the 800 metres field to smash the meeting record
Hodgkinson will now not race again until the World Championships in Tokyo, which start on September 13.
But she will head to Japan as huge favourite for gold, following silvers at the previous editions of the event in 2022 and 2023.
Hodgkinson’s runs in Silesia and Lausanne were respectively the second and fourth fastest of her career.
And they have come despite an injury-enforced 376-day absence from competition, having torn both her hamstrings this year.
‘Things have gone really well,’ added Hodgkinson about her return. ‘The body’s a lot stronger. All I’ve done is train all year, so I’m definitely in a really good place physically.’
One of Hodgkinson’s main rivals in Tokyo is likely to be Hunter Bell, who was disappointed with her third-place finish last night in Lausanne.
‘I wanted a bit faster on the time,’ said the Olympic 1500m bronze medallist, who trains with Hodgkinson in Manchester. ‘I really want to run 1:55 this year and I think I am capable. It was a little bit cold and wet, but we are from England, so we cannot really complain.’
Meanwhile, British sprint stars Dina Asher-Smith and Daryll Neita finished fifth and seventh respectively in a women’s 200m won by American Brittany Brown.
Zharnel Hughes was fifth in the men’s 100m in 10.09sec, with Jamaican Oblique Seville producing the performance of the night to win in 9.87sec, ahead of Olympic champion Noah Lyles in 10.02sec.
