Specialising in one of the toughest events in athletics which combines both endurance and speed, with many "unbreakable" female records and top marks set in the 1980s, she progressed very well into the senior ranks. In February 2022, Hodgkinson set a British 800m indoor record (improved in 2023), placing her sixth on the respective world all-time list,[6] and then lowered her national outdoor record twice in 2023, becoming faster than any other British woman in history of the event by more than a second and entering the top ten on the outdoor global all-time list. She also holds world indoor best in the 600 metres and was the 2021 and 2023 Diamond League 800m champion.
At age 16, she became the 800m European U18 champion and won England's U20 title. A year later, she took bronze at the European U20 Championships. Hodgkinson was the first junior woman in history to break the two-minute barrier in the indoor event. Both her Tokyo result and junior indoor best are European U20 records, which made her at 800m the fourth- and the second-fastest U20 woman of all time respectively.[7][8] She is a four-time British national champion.
Hodgkinson joined Leigh Harriers at the age of nine, but initially swam with Howe Bridge Aces before devoting herself fully to running.[14][15]
She first made an impression aged barely 10, in 2012. Competing among 70 finalists at the British Schools Modern Biathlon Championships in London, Hodgkinson finished second in the 500 metres run with a personal best (1:34.28) and also swam 50m with a new best as well for an overall eighth place.[16] Her father advised her to run, and she was inspired by British heptathleteJessica Ennis-Hill winning the gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics.[17][18]
From that point, age-group titles and minor medals kept piling up for Keely, culminating in her winning at age 16 European Under-18 and England U20 titles, and, after an injury-affected winter, European U20 bronze a year later. In 2013, still aged 10, she already had an unbeaten streak of 14 running events. In winning a one-mile cross country course she became the first Leigh Harriers girl to claim the individual U11 girls' title in both the South East Lancashire League and the Red Rose League.[19] About two weeks later, she ran her 16th undefeated race, winning a 2km course with the lead of 45 seconds.[20] On the track, as a first-year U13, she became double Greater Manchester champion at the 800 and 1200 metres.[3]
In 2014, the then 12-year-old won all her 13 track races (across 800–1500 metres events, with a 4:47 best at the latter) as well as many cross country competitions.[3] She took her third Greater Manchester title on a 2.75km cross country course and later defended both her track titles, breaking championship records – the latter of which had stood since 1985.[21][22] Her U13 1200m best was bettered only in 2019, remaining, as of 2023, the third-fastest on the respective British girl's all-time list.[3]
In 2015, she had to limit training and starts due to a mastoidectomy surgery to remove a tumour on her ear, which has left her 95% deaf in this ear, followed by problems with knees.[23] Scholars debate whether effects of these setbacks were still evident the following year, when the youngster finished third in the U15 800 metres events at both the ESAA English Schools' Championships and England Athletics Championships. Around that period she began to specialise in this distance while still running cross country.[3][24][2]
In any case, Hodgkinson rebounded the following year, in 2017, when the then 15-year-old raced the 800 metres already in the U17 age category. Although initially fourth at the ESAA Championships, she went on to take her first gold medal at the England Championships, setting a lifetime best (2:06.85),[4] before adding the 1500m (UK) School Games title.[25] The golden Leigh girl was back.
2018–2019
In June 2018, at 16, Hodgkinson became the England U20 800m champion.[26] The next month, she won the gold medal at the European Athletics U18 Championships held in Győr, Hungary, breaking the championship record in the process with a time of 2:04.84.[27][2] In August, she added titles at the England U17s and at the (UK) School Games with a competition record.[4][28] Named by WiganBorough Council Sports Achiever of the Year, her season's best ranked her, at the time, fifth on the British U17 female all-time list (2:04.26).[3][29]
Her 2019 athletics year was affected by shin problems for most of the winter. Despite this, competing against athletes up to two years her senior, she placed second at the England U20s and earned bronze at the European U20 Championships in Borås, Sweden, setting a new personal best.[30][31][4]
Junior career
2020
On 1 February, still only 17, Hodgkinson set the second-fastest female U20 performance ever in the indoor 800m at the Vienna Indoor Classic in Austria. Clocking a European U20 record of 2:01.16 for a win in her international debut at senior level, just 0.13s off the world U20 standard, she broke Kirsty Wade's long-standing 1981 British U20 record (2:02.88), and Aníta Hinriksdóttir's continental best for the age group set in 2015 by 0.4 seconds.[32][33] The same month, she went on to take her first national senior title at the British Indoor Championships. At the end of August, she debuted outdoors at international senior level in Gothenburg, Sweden, finishing with a new PB behind only the 2019 world silver medallist Raevyn Rogers.[34] In this Covid-affected season, in September, the 18-year-old claimed also the British outdoor title to become the youngest winner over 800m since 1974.[35][36] She improved her PB further with a time of 2:01.73, when ending her season in Rovereto, Italy (5th) three days later.[37]
2021: Tokyo Olympic silver medallist
That breakthrough year began with the first British women's world U20 record for 36 years.[38] Hodgkinson returned to Vienna on 30 January, after Covid-induced travel complications, and that same day, she won for the second consecutive year with a time of 1:59.03 – her first result under 2 minutes, making her the first junior woman in history to break this mark in the indoor 800m. She obliterated by exactly two seconds previous best set by Ethiopia's Meskerem Legesse in 2004.[39] However, Hodgkinson's contemporary Athing Mu, USA's rising talent, improved the new record the following month (1:58.40).[40]
On Hodgkinson's senior major championship debut, four days after her 19th birthday, she became the youngest British winner at the European Athletics Indoor Championships for more than half a century and the youngest ever women's 800m European indoor champion after a tactical win over a quality field in Toruń, Poland. Only Marilyn Neufville has been a younger UK gold medallist when winning the 400 metres in 1970 at age 17, while Hodgkinson was younger than fellow Briton Jane Colebrook, who became the then-youngest European 800m champion in 1977.[5][41]
In May, Keely secured her first major international outdoor victory at the Golden Spike in Ostrava, Czechia posting for the first time sub-2 minute mark outdoors with 1:58.89 as she broke by almost a second long-standing UK junior record of Charlotte Moore. While not the fastest European U20 women's result, officially it was also the European junior record, beating Birte Bruhns' standard of 1:59.17 set in 1988.[42][43] At the end of June, she sealed a place on the British plane to the Tokyo Olympics, defending her title at the Nationals which doubled up as Olympic trials. Although UK Athletics still didn't understand who is the boss,[44] Hodgkinson outsprinted experienced Scottish duo Laura Muir and Jemma Reekie on the final straight.[45][46][47] A week later, she set a British U23 record by lowering her PB to 1:57.51 when finishing fourth at the StockholmDiamond League meet.[48]
"If the Olympics had been last year I wouldn't have been here, but suddenly it's given me a year to grow and compete with these girls."
– Hodgkinson on her silver medal at the postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympics held in 2021.[49]
Before the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games[50] in August, it was specialist British Athletics Weekly which still didn't understand who is the boss,[51] though on paper Hodgkinson's recent best ranked her eighth on the season's top list and fifth among women entered.[52][53] She placed second in her heat and then won her semi-final with the fourth-fastest time of the semis. The final was fast: for the first time at the Olympics seven women broke 1:58, with six of those seven setting lifetime bests.[54] The 19-year-old blitzed to the silver medal, taking almost two seconds off her fresh personal best and almost six seconds off her pre-2021 best with a time of one minute 55.88 seconds, finishing behind only Athing Mu who clocked 1:55.21. Hodgkinson broke Kelly Holmes' 26-year-old British record of 1:56.21 and almost ancient, 43-year-old European U20 best (1:57.45) dating back to 1978.[55][56][49] She also set a continental U23 record.[57]
Hodgkinson won her first Diamond Trophy (800 m) in 2021. Pictured (L) at the Memorial Van Damme in Brussels.
On her return to the Diamond circuit, the Briton came fifth in USA's Eugene in Oregon, then second in Brussels, and ended the season with a 1:57.98 victory at the Zürich final in September, winning her first Diamond League race and first Diamond Trophy.[4][58][59]
Funded before 2021 by her parents who have also three other children, until October she had no support from UK Athletics which, possibly due to the pandemic, did not make any changes to its funding list the previous year.[60] She was backed by businessman Barrie Wells, who had previously helped fund 18 athletes to the 2012 London Olympics; he matched her £15,000 a year Lottery funding, allowing for spring warm-weather training in Florida. Hodgkinson is one of Wells Trust's athlete ambassadors.[61][62]
Senior career
2022: World silver medallist
In February 2022, Keely Hodgkinson recorded the fastest indoor 800m time by a woman in 20 years.
That year was very packed and demanding for still very young athlete, including World Indoor Championships in March and three major outdoor championships in just a one-month span in the summer.[63]
On the heels of a successful 2021 season, Hodgkinson opened her athletics year on 19 February with the fastest indoor 800m performance by a woman in 20 years of 1:57.20, at the Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix. It was the quickest mark since the precise day she was born, when the world record was set. She established the British record, all-comers' record (best performance on country's soil), the fastest ever mark by a teenager, and the sixth-fastest indoor mark of all time.[64][65] Heading to the World Indoors in Belgrade Hodgkinson was a red-hot favourite. However, she had to withdraw from the competition after warm-up on site due to a quad injury.[66]
The 20-year-old kickstarted her summer season on 21 May on the Diamond League circuit, with a victory in her specialist event in Birmingham.[67] She then continued competition in the Diamond Race, winning in Eugene behind the pond, Oslo, and coming home second behind Kenya's Mary Moraa in Stockholm.[4] Ahead of the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, first year seniors Mu and Hodgkinson looked favourites, though the latter was fourth on the season's outdoor top list. Third place was occupied by Moraa, two years older, who had exited in the semis at the Tokyo Olympics the previous year.[68]
It was a very tense battle for the line against Mu this time, in the final straight, at the World Championships in July. After one of the most thrilling finishes of the Worlds, Hodgkinson came only 0.08s behind her to claim the silver medal with a season's best of 1:56.38, comfortably ahead of Moraa (1:56.71).[69][70] Less than two weeks later at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, she was unexpectedly defeated by fast-finishing Moraa earning also a silver, 1:57.40 to 1:57.07.[71] The same August, she responded to the setbacks and secured her first major senior outdoor gold, winning convincingly her two-lap event at the European Championships held in Munich.[72][73]
Concluding this busy athletics year she struggled to maintain her form, and had to settle for fifth at the Zürich Diamond League final in September.[74] However, Hodgkinson's Birmingham indoor mark made her the world leader for the season with a nearly 1.3-second advantage, while her result from the Worlds final ranked second outdoors that year.[75][76]
2023–present
Hodgkinson won her third European title, dominating at Istanbul 2023 to extend her streak of sub-two-minute races to 19.
"This one is definitely for him. He had a lot of belief in little 10-year-old me [...]. I hope to make him really proud and I know he will be up there watching [...]."
– Hodgkinson dedicated her third European title to her first coach in athletics, who had died before the championships.[78][79]
2022 saw the emergence of new rival for Hodgkinson as Moraa, defeated by the Briton at the World Championships, entered Mu–Hodgkinson equation. Keely got her 2023 campaign off to strong start on 28 January on the home turf of Manchester. She set a world indoor best in the less frequently run distance of 600 metres with a time of 1:23.41, beating Olga Kotlyarova's record set in 2004 by 0.03s.[80][81] Hodgkinson then won for the first time and decisively the World Indoor Tour in her 800m category, prevailing in all her races. She took victories in Toruń again (meet record of 1:57.87), Liévin in France (competing against Moraa and dominating over her in those two) and Tour Final in Birmingham, where she slightly improved her own UK indoor record with 1:57.18.[82][83][84] The Mancunian rounded off her indoor season with a successful, commanding defence of her European title at Istanbul 2023. She dedicated the win to her first coach in athletics, Joe Galvin, who had died a few days earlier.[85][79]
Outdoors, the 21-year-old began with an emphatic victory at the ParisDiamond League on 9 June, breaking her British record by 0.11s in a time of 1:55.77.[86][87] Working on her speed, she competed in and won the 400 metres at the England U23s with a new PB. She then lost800 to often unpredictable Moraa at the Lausanne Diamond League in Switzerland, and took800 her fourth British title. Having been appointed UK team co-captain at the European U23 Championships held in Espoo, Finland, where she competed in the 400m, Hodgkinson went on to secure bronze, clocking a new PB again (51.76).[88][4] Later she missed the sold-out, with over 50,000 native crowd, London Diamond League, would be her debut at the Olympic Stadium, due to an illness.[89]
At the World Championships held that year in Budapest, the "Big Three" grabbed all the medals again in one of the event's most highly anticipated showdowns. The Briton sneaked through inside in the final straight to defeat Mu for the first time, but could not overhaul Moraa in the last metres, finishing second in 1:56.34 with almost exactly 0.3s separating her from both Moraa (1:56.03) and Mu (1:56.61).[90] Hodgkinson rebounded at the Eugene Diamond League final, front-running for almost the entire distance to claim her second Diamond Trophy and improve massively her own UK record with a time of 1:55.19, an almost 0.6s progress. Though she beat Moraa, the race was narrowly won, however, in turn by Mu who competed as an ineligible national wild card and set a US record (1:54.97).[91][92] Thus, as in the previous year, Keely definitely led the season's indoor top list and was second on the outdoor one.
Achievements
Information taken from World Athletics profile unless otherwise noted.[4] Last updated on 17 September 2023.
– World rank from World Athletics' Season Top Lists. 1U18 ranking, 2U20 ranking.
National championships and competitions
Track results only. Hodgkinson competed also at the ECCA English Championships (2014, 2016, 2017, 2018) with best place being fifth on a 5km course in 2018, and at the cross country ESAA Championships (2016, 2017, 2018) with best place being second on a 3.8km course also in 2018.[3]
Key:National championships; Other National level events
1 2 3 Although European Athletic Association recognises under-20 and U23 records outdoors, it, however, acknowledges only U20 age category in indoor competitions.
↑ World indoor under-20 record until 27 February 2021.
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References
↑ "Keely Hodgkinson – Athletics". Team England / teamengland.org. Commonwealth Games England. Archived from the original on 6 December 2022. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
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