Keely Hodgkinson Shines with Record-Breaking 800m Win at Indoor Worlds

NEW DELHI: Keely Hodgkinson headlined a ‘Super Sunday’ for Britain at the world indoor championships as she stormed to victory in the 800m just minutes after teammates Georgia Hunter Bell and Molly Caudery had also triumphed.

Hodgkinson was then back on the track to anchor the British women’s team in the championship-ending 4x400m relay, but they could only finish fifth in a race won by the U.S.

Hodgkinson set a new world indoor record over 800m last month and proceeded to clock the second fastest time ever run over the distance for a stunning individual victory — and a first global gold.

“I’m just happy and healthy to finish and, finally, to come into a championships as favourite and actually finish on top,” said Hodgkinson, who clocked a blistering 1min 55.30sec for the win.

She was welcomed at the line by training partner Hunter Bell, who had just won the 1,500m, and Caudery, winner of the women’s pole vault. The three golds came within the space of 28 minutes.

“There has been a lot going on in the last hour - everything seems a bit blurry to me!” said Hodgkinson, hailing herself and her gold medal-winning teammates as “three great examples” of British girls.

Hunter Bell had impressively reeled in Ethiopian front runner Birke Haylom at the bell to produce a crushing final lap in her race.

She clocked 3:58.53 for gold — her first global victory after world indoor bronze last year, an Olympic bronze in the 1,500m and world outdoor silver in the 800m.

Caudery, who previously won world indoor gold in Glasgow in 2024, was also not to be denied, clearing 4.85m to see off the challenge from Slovenia’s Tina Sutej.

It was some reward for an athlete who went out of the heats at the Paris Olympics and was unable to compete at last year’s world outdoors in Tokyo after sustaining an injury in the warm-up.

Garcia became the first athlete in world indoor history to win titles at both the 800 and 1,500m, having won the former in Belgrade in 2022.

Cooper Lutkenhaus won the 800m this time around, the 17-year-old American prodigy clocking 1:44.24 for gold to confirm his status as an absolute track star in the making. Agencies

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