After an injury-blighted first season as Olympic champion, 2026 is about one thing for Keely Hodgkinson: “domination”.
The 24-year-old captured her first world indoor title in commanding fashion as she claimed 800m gold in a championship record time on a historic night for Great Britain in Poland on Sunday.
That success came one month after she smashed the long-standing women’s indoor 800m world record, set by Slovenia’s Jolanda Ceplak on the day the Briton was born in 2002.
The first of two serious hamstring injuries prevented her from attacking that mark 12 months ago, and she was forced to wait 376 days to race again following her crowning moment at Paris 2024.
But Hodgkinson – branded ‘Keely 2.0’ within her training group following her impressive rebuild in the gym – is already making up for lost time.
“My word this year has been domination,” Hodgkinson told Sport.
“When I’m in the shape of my life, why leave it to chance?
“If you want to beat me, I’ll make you work hard for it.”
Hodgkinson made further history by becoming Britain’s first women’s 800m world champion – indoors or outdoors – crossing the line more than a second clear of her rivals in one minute 55.30 seconds.
That triumph wrapped up 28 minutes of success after golds for her training partner Georgia Hunter Bell and pole vaulter Molly Caudery on a sensational Sunday for the British team.
Following Josh Kerr’s 3,000m triumph on Saturday, it guaranteed the British team’s most successful World Indoor Championships of all time, surpassing the three gold medals achieved in 1999.
Hodgkinson reappeared on the track less than an hour after her gold to join the bid for a women’s 4x400m relay medal at the end of the final day of action in Torun.
Despite her best efforts – and running the quickest leg of any athlete in the event with a 50.10-second split – she was unable to overturn a substantial deficit on her anchor leg.
