HODGKINSON POISED FOR FIRST WORLD INDOOR TITLE
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2026 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved - Used with permission.

TORUŃ (19-Mar) -- Life has been pretty good lately for reigning Olympic 800m gold medalist Keely Hodgkinson.  The 24 year British athlete, who represents Nike, has had a short, but sweet, indoor season which will reach its conclusion this weekend here at the 21st World Athletics Indoor Championships at Kujawsko-Pomorska Arena Toruń.  Hodgkinson, who missed the 2025 indoor season after tearing her hamstring last February, comes in to Toruń as the gold medal favorite after setting a new world indoor (short track) 800m record of 1:54.87 in Liévin.

"I was just grateful to get to the start line," Hodgkinson said at a press conference here today.  "I just really believed in it that day.  I knew I was going to do it."

But when this year started Hodgkinson had a more measured outlook.  While she was healthy enough to compete in last September's World Athletics Championships in Tokyo and win a bronze medal, after last year's setbacks she wanted to take this indoor season just one step at a time.  She placed her faith in coaches Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows --the 800m silver medalist at the 2010 World Athletics Indoor Championships-- and got to work.

"I didn't really actually set any goals, anything," Hodgkinson explained about her early-season training with her M-11 Track Club teammates including Olympic medalist Georgia Hunter Bell.  "I was more just like, I said to my coach I don't want to know where you want me, I don't know when you want me to race, I just want to get through each week, each training camp and see how it goes.  I was out quite a lot last year because of injuries, so I just wanted to get through the process of getting fit and see how far I can go in training."

She opened her season with a national indoor record of 1:56.33 in the preliminary round of the British Athletics Indoor Championships in Birmingham (she announced before the meet that she would not run in the final).  Instead, she gathered all her strength for her world record attempt in France five days later.  She broke the previous mark of 1:55.82 set by Slovenia's Jolanda Ceplak 24 years earlier by nearly a full second.  Her performance was particularly gratifying given last year's aborted indoor season.

"I think it's difficult for any athlete when you just want to compete," Hodgkinson explained.  "You just want to compete, and you do all of this training to get out there.  Every time I tried I was just like, put back to the sidelines, start again.  Rehab, months and months of it, definitely was draining on the mind.  A lot of frustrations."

Interestingly, Hodgkinson said her time away from competition gave her some additional perspective and allowed her to pursue some of her interests outside of athletics.

"I always say now, I look back I wouldn't change any of it," Hodgkinson said.  "I think it was an important moment for me.  I learned a lot about myself.  I had time off the track to just enjoy my life, have some chill time, and made me a better athlete."

Here in Toruń, Hodgkinson had one significant obstacle to winning gold removed yesterday when it was reported that 2024 world indoor 800m champion, Tsige Duguma of Ethiopia, would not be competing because she wasn't able to obtain a visa to travel to Poland.  Still, Hodgkinson faces credible challenges from Switzerland's Audrey Werro, Kenya's Gladys Chepngetich, and the United States' Addy Wiley.  She said that she's particularly excited to compete because, despite all of her accomplishments, she has never competed at a World Athletics Indoor Championships before.

"It's the one medal I don't have," said Hodgkinson, who won four consecutive 800m gold medals at European championships (indoors and outdoors) from 2021 through 2024.  "That would be really great to box that one off.  As I said, I'm just happy to make the starting line this time, and until I cross the finish line I'm not going to jinx anything.  Excited to be here, excited to compete.  The competition looks great.  Let's see what happens."

Also today, World Athletics president Sebastian Coe was clearly pleased to have these championships in Poland where athletics is quite popular.  He called it "one of the bread baskets of athletics in Europe."

"The World Indoors brings the world's best athletes together," said Coe, twice the Olympic 800m champion in 1980 and 1984.  "It's fast, it's intense, it's unforgettable competition.  It's intimate seating and setting for our fans.  It really does bring our sport up-front and close to the action.  I think I speak on behalf of all of us today when I say we're really looking forward to the three days of thrilling action."

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The World Athletics Indoor Championships open tomorrow morning at 10:05 a.m. CET.  The home page for these championships, which includes a country-by-country listing of where the championships will be broadast, is located here: 

https://worldathletics.org/competitions/world-athletics-indoor-championships/kujawypomorze26


PHOTO: Keely Hodgkinson winning the 800m gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics (photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)

PHOTO: Keely Hodgkinson speaking to the media in advance of the 2026 World Athletics Indoor Championships in Toruń, Poland (photo by Jane Monti for Race Results Weekly)