{"id":229409,"date":"2026-02-19T23:09:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T23:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/19\/that-was-fun-keely-hodgkinson-smashes-world-record-set-on-day-she-was-born\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T23:09:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T23:09:00","slug":"that-was-fun-keely-hodgkinson-smashes-world-record-set-on-day-she-was-born","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/19\/that-was-fun-keely-hodgkinson-smashes-world-record-set-on-day-she-was-born\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018That was fun\u2019: Keely Hodgkinson smashes world record set on day she was born"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n

Britain\u2019s Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson<\/a> obliterated the world indoor 800m record, which has stood since 2002, by nearly a second in a stunning performance in Li\u00e9vin.<\/p>\n

Hodgkinson had made no secret that she believed the record of 1min 55.82sec, set by Slovenia\u2019s Jolanda Ceplak on the same day Hodgkinson was born \u2013 3 March 2002 \u2013 was there for the taking after a prep race at the British championships last week.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

The 23-year-old proved as good as her word as she smashed a quality field that included Ethiopia\u2019s Olympic silver medallist Tsige Duguma and Switzerland\u2019s European Under-23 champion Audrey Werro, to lower Ceplak\u2019s mark after running a staggering 1:54.88.<\/p>\n

Asked for her reaction afterwards, a breathless Hodgkinson said: \u201cThank God! That was really fun. I\u2019ve been looking forward to this for a good few weeks. I was really excited to come here. I felt like it was going to happen today, it was just a matter of how fast I could go. It was really hard that last lap, but I am super happy. It\u2019s nice to have a world record and to say about something I am the best to ever do it. That\u2019s really exciting. And I\u2019ve been working at it for a long time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last couple of years I have said I have really wanted it. It almost felt a bit weird that it was set on the day I was born, and 24 years later I break it. But I think there\u2019s still more to push.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Keely Hodgkinson takes a well-earned rest after her blistering 800m run.<\/span> Photograph: Sameer Al-Doumy\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For Hodgkinson it was a just reward for her perseverance. She had originally intended to break the record in her own event, the Keely Klassic, in Birmingham last February only to tweak her hamstring on the eve of the race.<\/p>\n

She then had more problems with her hamstring and back after an eight-hour round trip to Windsor Palace to collect an MBE. While she recovered to win a bronze medal at the world championships in Tokyo in September, it was clear that she was not at her best.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

But she has started the indoor season in superb form, and having gone through halfway in 55.56sec and through 600m in 1:25.06, she held her form enough to break the world indoor record \u2013 which World Athletics<\/a> now call the short-track record \u2013 by 0.88sec.<\/p>\n

It is another extraordinary addition to her CV that now includes an Olympic gold and silver, as well as two silvers and a bronze at world championships. Hodgkinson will now target one of the few medals she has not won \u2013 at the world indoor championships in Torun in Poland next month.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Britain\u2019s Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson obliterated the world indoor 800m record, which has stood since 2002, by nearly a second in a stunning performance in Li\u00e9vin. Hodgkinson had made no secret that she believed the record of 1min 55.82sec, set by Slovenia\u2019s Jolanda Ceplak on the same day Hodgkinson was born \u2013 3 March 2002 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":229410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6802],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-229409","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-athetics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}