Keely Hodgkinson has won Britain’s first athletics gold medal of the Paris Olympics after a stunning victory in the women’s 800m final.
On a blisteringly hot night in Paris, the 22-year-old took the lead on the first lap to go and held on to win in 1min 56.72sec. Behind her was Tsige Duguma of Ethiopia in a personal best of 1:57:15, with Mary Moraa, the world champion, taking bronze in 1:57:42.
Hodgkinson could have been forgiven for having PTSD on the startline given that she had returned from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and the 2022 and 2023 world championships with three silver medals.
But this was a different Hodgkinson. She knew that. And so did her opponents. It wasn’t just that her personal best of 1:54.61, set at the Diamond League in London last month, was over two seconds quicker than anyone else in the field had run in 2024.
With this victory Hodgkinson becomes the third British woman to Olympic 800m gold, joining Anne Packer at the 1964 Tokyo Games and Kelly Holmes in Athens in 2004 in the pantheon.
It also marks a culmination of a journey that began when Hodgkinson watched Jessica Ennis-Hill win heptathlon gold at London 2012 when she was 10.
At that age Hodgkinson preferred swimming to running, and while her dad would tell her she was even better on the track, her stubborn side initially resisted. But when she joined her local athletics club, she discovered she was a natural. And in Paris, she proved it.
Her victory brings up Team GB’s second medal in athletics in Paris, following bronze in the mixed 4x400m relay on Saturday.
More to follow shortly …
