believes she is in the shape of her life<\/a> having kicked on again since breaking the world indoor 800m record last month. But she admitted she is not a big fan of having to race three times in three days in Torun.<\/p>\n\u201cI just don\u2019t like rounds,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t like them at all. That was horrible, to be honest. When you\u2019re so used to training at a certain rhythm you just have to make sure you get through the rounds, conserve energy and not fall over. All these things do go through your head.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very experienced at this now, but you\u2019re exposed to anything. So I\u2019m just glad that\u2019s done. Tomorrow, we step it up again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hodgkinson\u2019s goal is clear: her first world title. \u201cObviously I want to get gold,\u201d she said. \u201cI won\u2019t be happy with anything else. I\u2019ve had a season so far that\u2019s been amazing, let\u2019s hope it continues.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hodgkinson also expressed her relief at being able to run at these world indoor championships after missing out three times through injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2022 I got all the way here, didn\u2019t end up starting because I tore my quads. In 2024, I had a knee injury that put me out over winter, so I missed Glasgow. And last year I tore my hamstring just before it started. So it\u2019s been emotional.\u201d<\/p>\n
Britain\u2019s Isabelle Boffey also made it through to the semi-finals as a fastest loser while the Swiss athlete Audrey Werro, who is Hodgkinson\u2019s main rival here, laid down a marker winning her heat in 1:59.91. \u201cFor my birthday next week, the perfect present would be a gold medal,\u201d Werro said.<\/p>\n
In the men\u2019s 800m, Britain\u2019s 2023 world championship bronze medallist Ben Pattison looked strong in winning his heat, as did the 17-year-old American phenom Cooper Lutkenhaus, who eased into the semi-finals in second place.<\/p>\nYaroslava Mahuchikh sporting blue and yellow eye makeup to show her support for Ukraine.<\/span> Photograph: Kirill Kudryavtsev\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe first gold of the championships was won by Ukraine\u2019s Yaroslava Mahuchikh in the high jump with a clearance of 2.01m. Unusually three women took silver after they all cleared 1.99m without any failures beforehand \u2013 Ukraine\u2019s Yuliya Levchenko, Australia\u2019s Nicola Olyslagers and the Serb Angelina Topic.<\/p>\n
Mahuchikh, who competed wearing blue and yellow eye makeup, said she had done so to remind the global audience of Russia\u2019s aggression. \u201cI need to show the whole world that I\u2019m from Ukraine and I protect my country on track,\u201d she added. \u201cWe fight for Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No opponent has come close to knocking Keely Hodgkinson off her stride in 2026. But after breezing into the semi-finals of the world indoor championships, she revealed that her preparations had been interrupted by an airline, KLM, losing her kit for 48 hours on the flight to Poland. It led to the overwhelming favourite for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":234249,"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-234248","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\/234248","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=234248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/234249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=234248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=234248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}