With her world record-breaking run in Liévin, Keely Hodgkinson showed that, at full fitness, she is untouchable. The Olympic champion has carved herself a wonderful opportunity to win another medal for her ever growing collection, writes Katharine Merry.
It’s the place that every athlete wants to find themselves in, yet so rarely ever gets to experience – 100 per cent fitness. No aches, no pains, no grumbles, no niggles, a consistent spell of good training under the belt and a clear track ahead. It’s such a delicious feeling but that state of affairs can be so fleeting that you have got to seize the opportunity with both hands when the window is open.
As we head towards the World Indoor Championships, Keely Hodgkinson has that very opportunity. You can see it in her body language, you can hear it when she speaks and, most importantly, it is glaringly obvious from her performances on the track so far this year.
I had the pleasure of calling her 800m race in the arena at the UK Indoor Championships in Birmingham last month when she broke the then British indoor record with 1:56.33 and it was so clear that, after four months of training, she had been chomping at the bit to put her fitness to the test.
You know that if Keely turns up to race then it’s going to be decent but this was a truly phenomenal solo run that was effectively a time trial. Her coaches Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows were sitting right by the commentary booth as the race unfolded and Keely hadn’t been supposed to run that fast. She was supposed to run a solid 400m and then just bring it home, perhaps putting some markers down at certain points in the second half, but she’s in such a good place that she couldn’t help herself and it ultimately set her up beautifully for her world record attempt in Liévin a few days later.
She had been very up front about her plan to race in France, and that it would mean she was only going to race in the heats at the UK Indoors, so I think she will have been hurt by some of the negative comments she received about doing that. But I also think it might have put a little bit of fire in her belly and helped fuel her world record-breaking run.
Her confidence is off the scale right now and the level she raised her game to was mightily impressive. Audrey Werro of Switzerland is no slouch and is developing into a very fine athlete but, when Keely put her foot down, she dropped her like a stone. You could see it was a complete change of gear and none of her opponents could do anything about it as she flew to 1:54.87. When Keely is fully fit, I don’t think there’s anyone around at the moment that can touch her.
There is perhaps one but she is keeping an incredibly low profile right now. When I woke up the morning after that world record had been broken, the first person I thought of was Athing Mu and how times have changed. It’s not so long ago that the American was beating Keely to Olympic and world titles but the trajectory of both since then has been starkly different. One’s gone sky high, while the other has dropped off the face of the earth (for now, at least).
With both in their early twenties, this was supposed to be a rivalry that would run and run but it hasn’t materialised. Who knows, perhaps we’ll see Athing re-emerge as a force to be reckoned with as we approach the LA Olympics – and she is certainly capable of doing that – but I’d be really interested to get a penny for her thoughts right now. I wonder what she makes of it all?
Keely has talked about feeling like she’s closing in on that controversial outdoor 800m world record of 1:53.28 by Jarmila Kratochvilova that has stood for so long and this could well be the year for her to do it. Does she need someone like Mu breathing down her neck to help her get there? I’m not actually sure that she does – I think she can do it on her own.
Like I said, there’s a supreme confidence and underlying belief in what she’s capable of but there’s not an arrogance with it. Keely reminds me a little bit of Cathy Freeman in the sense that she’s just doing what she loves and she’s just really good at it.
How significant is it for her to have broken that world indoor record? It will be a weight off her shoulders, given that she has never shied away from declaring how much she wanted it and the fact that it had been set on the day she was born has been spoken about so many times.
It felt like it was always destined to become hers, and the plan had been for her to break it last year at the Keely Klassic before injury dictated otherwise. It certainly didn’t ever look like it was going to be in doubt in Liévin. Let’s not forget that she took nearly a second off the record, she dismantled it, and you could tell she was fully expecting to do that.
It was another honour to add to a growing list and, hopefully, she can hang on to that fitness and become a world indoor champion, too. It’s remarkable to think that, due to injury, she hasn’t even competed at a World Indoor Championships before. It’s currently a medal missing from her collection and she deserves for fate to smile on her for this one.
It will help that these championships are being staged in Toruń. It’s a place that will bring back happy memories for Keely given that she won the European Indoor title – the first major senior honour of her career – there in 2021. It’s incredible to consider everything that has happened since then and all that has been achieved. She knows the set-up there and she is a very clear favourite to take gold, but I think the biggest difference on this occasion is likely to be her winning time. Five years ago, she won in 2:03.88 and it’s hard to imagine history repeating itself on that score. With a gold medal on the line, I’d expect her to be around six seconds quicker!
I just hope so much that she can stay fit but don’t forget that she has only just turned 24 and is still learning all the time with Trevor and Jenny. There’s a developing maturity to her running and I think the injury problems of last year will have taught them all a great deal.
Those problems will also have been a reminder that, if you’re in shape, you just go for it.
I think the new rule in the 800m, whereby the break point has been moved further back by 100m to cut down the risk of early trips and falls, will make quite a difference too. It’s a good rule, Keely’s already spoken about how much she likes it, and it should make things nice and clear for her so that she can run her race any way she wants.
She has the talent and the ability to dictate how that final will unfold, but those decisions will be dictated by how she’s feeling. When you’re on and really ready to go, you know it straight away. As soon as you’re down on the warm-up track and you’re turning over, feeling bouncy, you know you’re going to have a good day.
You think of the consistency and work that has got you to that point and then, if you drop a good performance, it’s like: “This is what it’s all about”. It’s incredibly satisfying. Mind you, it doesn’t take long for your mind to change to: “Right, I’ve got to make sure I can keep this”.
You are never complacent with it. As we know, consistency breeds good results and good results breed confidence. Let’s see if Keely can deliver the goods, and another amazing result, once again.
