Keely Hodgkinson: Great Britain’s Olympic 800m gold medalist ‘dominates the world’ in 43-year-old world record chase | Athletics news

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Keeley Hodgkinson speaks after winning 800m gold in a championship record time at the World Athletics Indoor Championships

Lying horizontally in absolute agony, breathing heavily to get as much oxygen back into her lungs, Keely Hodgkinson ached.

He has just completed a training set of 400 meters on the outdoor track at the Manchester Regional Arena, right next to Manchester City’s stadium. City have some light blue ticker tape left over since Pep Guardiola was sent off.

Hodgkinson doesn’t notice or care. Full on, flat out, pushing his body beyond the limits mere mortals could endure.

But… the pain was worth it.

Kiley Hodgkinson pictured during the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Toruń earlier this year

Her coaches — husband and wife team Jenny Meadows and Trevor Painter — spent about 30 seconds checking their stopwatches and they just stared at each other. Surprise, awe, pride and a huge smile at what happened in one of Hodgkinson’s final training sessions before the start of her outdoor season tonight (June 4) in Rome… she just smashed her personal best (PB) time in training for the 400m split time.

Hodgkinson and her coaches set the oldest world record in athletics, the women’s 800m, set by Jarmila Kratochvilova of Czechoslovakia in 1983 – standing at a terrifying 321:321.

To beat a 43-year-old record Hodgkinson will need to have the pace in the first 400m to realistically challenge that time, so these final training sessions in Manchester with the M11 coaching group run by Painter and Meadows are crucial. Hodgkinson has what is considered a beautiful running style and on top of that he brings tenacity, determination and a sheer will to win, but it is not always enough.

He needs to be faster in the first 400m of the 800m to break the world record and achieve, in his words, “world dominance”, but that has been controlled.

You can’t finish it all by sprinting, control is key so it must come with a natural pace that has been worked on time and time again during training during the harsh winter months as well as now as he finalizes his preparations for the outdoor season.

Hodgkinson lying on the floor still gasping for air, Meadows and Painter walking excitedly; Hodgkinson’s PB for the 400m in training – known as the 400m split time – had previously averaged 50.5 seconds. Meadows can’t contain himself, a huge grin as Painter grabs his stopwatch and notepad: Hodgkinson’s only 400m training run in an average of 49.1 seconds!

His 800m world record attempt is underway, no more talk about it. Hodgkinson and his coaches now have the proof they need. 1:53:28 Beatable.

Keely Hodgkinson is a six-time world medalist

I ask Meadows what happened. I’ve seen Hodgkinson run two very fast 400m split laps (400m laps of 250m, short rest and then 150m, which is then repeated and repeated to calculate an average time), but I don’t know what’s going on. Meadows explained: “There haven’t been many times that Kylee hasn’t surprised us. Two split fours (400m laps) and she’s averaged 49.1 (seconds).

“All the time we’ve tried to be able to run 50-something for the 400, then he’ll be able to attack this world record.”

Painter Chips said: “It’s a huge day. It’s another reason where we actually say ‘we’ve got evidence it can happen’. It’s not like we’re kidding ourselves. We’re realistic with data analysis, especially when you’re chasing records like this. You have to be.

“He responds really well to stimulation, so we were able to do a month and a half before that (speed work). It was an ideal window, let’s get him in as quickly as possible and see what happens.”

By now, Hodgkinson can breathe properly and is standing up. I ask him if he’s surprised he just ran?

“I’m not too surprised because it’s been in the back of my head for the last two weeks,” she says. “I’ve been able to do speed work that I haven’t been able to do for a while, which puts us in a great position… but it’s nice to know that I have it for the 800, whether it comes out or not. So yeah, we’re just in an exciting place, at an exciting time!

“For me, all these last year or two I’ve learned to really enjoy the process, so when I came back in the winter (training) I was happy to start getting fit and just seeing myself getting fit again and pushing the limits of what we’ve done.

“I’ve enjoyed watching myself get faster and faster. A few little mental struggles along the way with pace due to my injury last year, but that’s part of it. For me, being an athlete and where I’m at now, it’s all about the process and how it all comes together. That’s the real joy. Big tick today. Huge!”

Meadows’ broad smile shows no sign of disappearing, knowing the significance of Hodgkinson’s training. “Yes, huge! It makes everything seem worthwhile,” she says.

“You get the occasional bad day where it’s not going well, you get the attitude from the athletes, we have conversations that we have when we get home, physios need to be called, scans need to be booked, chaos… and then you get days like this.”

‘Days like this’ don’t come around very often and when they do it’s the result of months of hard work that nobody really sees. Boring, painful, boring and lonely at times.

“This dedication has made Kiley Hodgkinson the 800m Olympic champion at Paris 2024, making her one of the hottest properties in athletics and the world indoor champion and indoor 800m world record holder in 2026.

Hodgkinson set a new championship record at the World Athletics Indoor Championships earlier this year

“Now she has solid evidence in training data. Not only does she expect to break the women’s 800m world record, she knows she can.”

Hodgkinson added: “For me, I’ve got all the confidence from training and from Trevor and Jenny and from the evidence that we’re running on track. Days like this make it worth it – headaches, early mornings, long days, busy appointments, all of it and I’ve really put my life into it. It just makes it worth it.

“Now my job is to run and make it happen. I’ll take it as a really good challenge, it brings out the best in me. Hopefully, it’s an exciting summer ahead. I feel like it’s going to be.”

So when will the challenge of the oldest world record in athletics come? Obviously it was on the cards and on the minds of Hodgkinson and his trainers, but as they say, they go by the evidence.

Painter and Meadows believe if everything falls into place next month’s London Diamond League meeting could be the perfect setting for Hodgkinson.

“Well we know when he wants to do it,” Meadows said. “He would love to do it in the Diamond League in London this year. He won there in 2024 which sets him up for Paris Olympic gold.

“He would love to do it at the London Olympic Stadium with the British crowd.”

Painter cites a few more reasons why Hodgkinson could break the 800m world record and why it remains a formidable sporting challenge:

“Shoe technology has improved a lot, track technology has improved a lot, our understanding of everything and the athlete’s understanding is increasing all the time so it’s getting closer and I believe he believes he can do it now and I believe he can,” he said.

“You need a lot of factors to go right on the actual day, the weather needs to be great, you need a bit of a crowd behind you to give someone like Keeley that lift and then you need the race to go the right way.”

Hodgkinson added: “We’re trying to limit this year. Courage is my word of the year. Last year it was freedom, this year it’s courage, so we’re just trying to be brave. And with that comes risk – with courage comes the reward of risk.”

Now comes the cautionary note. Breaking a world record in 1983 is not a given and many fall into the sport after high hopes.

“I think sometimes things can go wrong with things like this if you want things too much. I’m taking the approach this year of enjoying the process, taking it week by week to see what my body can handle and do and see what results come with it,” Hodgkinson said. “On paper I’m still a second and a half away, which feels like a big chunk so I’m hoping to make some gains this season.”

Whether Hodgkinson will break the 800m world record this year, or even in the next few years, he is aware of the historical significance.

“I think it’s going to be really cool history and I think it’s something that a lot of people will enjoy seeing, especially with this generation of athletes that we’ve got,” Hodgkinson said. “The quality of the girls we have right now is getting higher every year. Everyone else is running fast, we’re all running fast and we have to start somewhere.

“It’s something I think about and something I love to do. I’m definitely in the best shape mentally to do it, physically, but the kind of times we’re talking about, every decimal point, every tenth matters.

“For me, I’ve always said the world record is not if, but when. I can’t always plan for when… I’ll say it’s in my sights and it’s something I see as breakable and achievable.”

Who set the women’s 800m world record and why has it stood since 1983?

Kratochvilova set the women’s 800m world record on July 26, 1983 in Munich.

Kratochvilova was originally a 400m runner who intended to double up with the 200m. Instead he ran an 800m in 1983 and set a world record that has stood ever since: 1:53:28.

Some have described the record as toxic over the past four decades due to allegations of doping. However, while details are now known about the state-organized program in East Germany, for example, little is known about how athletes were trained and cared for in the former Czechoslovakia in the 1970s and 1980s.

Now in her 70s, Kratochvilova has always vehemently denied that she took performance-enhancing drugs, insisting that her performance on the track was attributed to her coach Miroslav Kvak’s grueling, physical exertion, including her upbringing on a farm and rigorous weight training.

In the intervening 43 years, no athlete came particularly close to Kratochvilov’s world record – no one ran under one minute and 54 seconds.

The second-fastest women’s 800m is largely forgotten: it was set by Nadezhda Olizarenko in 1980, running for the former Soviet Union (USSR), who was only 15 hundredths of a second slower than Kratochvilova.

South Africa’s Caster Semenya’s fastest 800m is almost a second slower than the current world record. He ran that time in 2018.

Hodgkinson currently has two of the top 10 fastest 800m times – 7th and 10th fastest – and her best mark currently stands at 1:54:61, the UK national record.