Hodgkinson Smashes 800m World Record
British middle-distance star Keely Hodgkinson shattered the women's indoor 800m world record with a time of 1:54.87, breaking Slovenia's Jolanda Ceplak's mark that had stood since 2002. The performance is being hailed as "untouchable" and places Hodgkinson among the greatest middle-distance runners of her generation.
- The previous world indoor 800m record of 1:55.82 was set by Slovenia's Jolanda Ceplak on March 3, 2002, the very day Keely Hodgkinson was born. - Hodgkinson's new record of 1:54.87 makes her the first woman to break the 1 minute 55 second barrier for the indoor 800m. - The record was set at the World Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Liévin, France. Just days prior, she had run 1:56.33 at the UK Indoor Championships without pacemakers, which was the third-fastest time in history. - Hodgkinson is coached by the husband-and-wife team of Trevor Painter and former international 800m runner Jenny Meadows. Meadows competed at the 2002 European Indoor Championships where Ceplak set the previous record. - This is Hodgkinson's first senior world record; she also holds the world indoor best performance for the 600m, which she set in 2023. - The previous record holder, Jolanda Ceplak, was the 2002 European Indoor Champion and an Olympic bronze medalist in 2004. She later received a two-year suspension for a doping violation in 2007. - Hodgkinson's next major competition will be the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Torun, Poland. - For comparison, the long-standing women's outdoor 800m world record is 1:53.28, set by Jarmila Kratochvílová in 1983. Hodgkinson's outdoor personal best is 1:54.61.
