Keely Hodgkinson

External images
How it started (K.H. on the left) – Leigh Sports Village
and how it's going – 2021 Tokyo Olympics

Hodgkinson joined Leigh Harriers at the age of nine, but initially swam with Howe Bridge Aces before devoting herself fully to running.[14][15]

At age of 10, Hodgkinson competed in the British Schools Modern Biathlon Championships in London. She finished second in the 500 metres with a personal best of 1:34.28 and took eighth place overall.[16] Her father advised her to run, and she was inspired by British heptathlete Jessica Ennis-Hill winning a gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics.[17][15]

The next year, in 2013, she had an unbeaten streak of 14 consecutive running events. In winning a one-mile cross country course she became the first Leigh Harriers girl to win the individual under-11 title in both the South East Lancashire League and the Red Rose League.[18] About two weeks later, she ran her 16th undefeated race, winning 2 km course with the lead of 45 seconds.[19] On the track, as a first-year U13, Keely became double Greater Manchester champion at the 800 and 1200 metres.[3]

In 2014, the then 12-year-old won all her 13 track races (across 800–1500 metres) as well as many cross country competitions.[3] She took her third Greater Manchester title on a 2.75 km cross country course, and later defended both her track titles, breaking championship records – the latter of which had stood since 1985.[20][21] Her 1200m best was bettered only in 2019, remaining, as of 2021, the third-fastest on the British U13 girl's all-time list.[3]

In 2015, she had to limit training and starts due to a mastoidectomy surgery to remove a tumour on her ear (which has left her 95% deaf in this ear) followed by problems with knees.[22]

Aged 14, she finished third in the 800m under-15 events at the ESAA English Schools' Championships, and at the England Championships. Around that period she began to specialise at this distance while still running cross country.[3][23][2] The next year, in 2017, running in the U17 800m races, Hodgkinson came fourth at the ESAA Championships, and took her first gold medal at the England Championships, setting a PB of 2:06.85.[4] She added the 1500m UK School Games title.[24]

In June 2018, at 16, Hodgkinson became the under-20 England champion in the 800m with a time of 2:04.41.[25] The next month, she won a gold medal at the European U18 Championships held in Győr, Hungary, finishing in 2:04.84 and breaking the championship record in the process.[26][2] In August, she added titles at the England under-17s, and at the UK School Games with a competition record of 2:04.89.[4][27] In October, Wigan Borough Council named Hodgkinson Sports Achiever of the Year, selecting her for its Believe Talent Fund.[28][29]

Her 2019 season was affected by shin problems for most of the winter. Despite this, she placed second at the England under-20s and took bronze at the U20 Europeans held in Borås, Sweden, setting a new best of 2:03.40.[30][31]

On 1 February, still only 17, Hodgkinson won the Vienna Indoor Track & Field competition in a European U20 800m indoor record in a time of 2:01.16. She broke Kirsty Wade's long-standing 1981 British U20 record of 2:02.88, and Aníta Hinriksdóttir's 2015 European U20 mark by 0.4 seconds.[32][33] The same month, she went on to take her first national title at the British Indoor Championships.

In August, Hodgkinson won two BMC gold standard races in Trafford with an outdoor PB of 2:02.85, and then improved it to 2:01.78 at the end of the month to finish second at a meeting in Gothenburg, Sweden. In what was her international outdoor debut at senior level, she lost only to the 2019 world silver medallist, Raevyn Rogers.[4][34] In September, Hodgkinson also claimed the British outdoor title to become the youngest winner since 1974.[35][2] She clocked a new lifetime best of 2:01.73 when ending her season in Rovereto, Italy three days later.[36]

Hodgkinson began her indoor season with a world under-20 record by winning Vienna (for the second consecutive year) in 1:59.03 – her first result under 2 minutes, making her the first junior woman in history to break this mark in the indoor 800m.[37][38] Notably, the record stood for less than a month before being improved by Athing Mu, who ran a time of 1:58.40.

On Hodgkinson's senior major championship debut, four days after her 19th birthday, she became the youngest British winner at the European Athletics Indoor Championships for more than half a century and the youngest ever women's 800m European indoor champion after a tactical win over a quality field in Toruń. Only Marilyn Neufville has been a younger UK gold medallist when winning the 400 metres in 1970 at age 17, and Hodgkinson was younger than fellow Briton Jane Colebrook, who became the then-youngest European 800m champion in 1977.[7][39]

In May, Hodgkinson secured her first major international outdoor victory at the Golden Spike in Ostrava. She ran her first time sub-2 minutes outdoors in a time of 1:58.89, breaking by almost a second long-standing UK junior record of Charlotte Moore. While not the fastest European U20 women's result, officially it was also the European junior record, beating Birte Bruhns' mark of 1:59.17 set in 1988.[40][41][42] At the end of June, Hodgkinson defended her British title at the Nationals which doubled up as Olympic trials, securing a place on the plane to Tokyo, outsprinting Jemma Reekie and Laura Muir on the final straight.[43][44][45] A week later, she lowered her PB to 1:57.51, finishing fourth at the Diamond League meet in Stockholm.[46][47]

External images
2021 Tokyo Olympics
Hodgkinson after final race with Athing Mu (left, 1st) and Alexandra Bell (right, 7th)

At the delayed 2020 Tokyo Games in August,[48] Hodgkinson won silver behind Athing Mu, taking almost two seconds off her previous personal best. She broke Kelly Holmes' 26-year-old British record of 1:56.21 and the 1978 European U20 best of 1:57.45.[46][49][50] All top five and the seventh woman set their lifetime bests. For the first time in history three women from Britain competed in the Olympic final, with Jemma Reekie narrowly missing out on bronze and Alexandra Bell placing seventh.[51][52]

In her first post-Olympic race and return to the Diamond circuit, Hodgkinson came fifth at the USA's Prefontaine Classic in 1:58.30, second in Brussels in 1:58.16, and ended the season with a 1:57.98 victory in Zürich, winning the 800m Diamond Trophy and a wildcard entry into the 2022 World Championships in United States.[4][53][54]

For her 2021 season Hodgkinson was awarded by the British Athletics Writers' Association Cliff Temple Award for British Female Athlete of the Year, British Athletics Supporters Club named her Athlete of the Year, and readers of Athletics Weekly voted her both British Rising Star and British Female Athlete of the Year.[55][56][57][58] She was also one of the nominees for both World Athletics and European Athletics Female Rising Star award.[59][60]

At least until 2021 Tokyo Summer Olympics, Hodgkinson was not funded by UK Athletics. The organisation, possibly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, did not add anyone onto its World Class Performance Programme in 2020. She was backed by businessman Barrie Wells, who had previously helped fund 20 athletes to the 2012 London Summer Games; he matched her £15,000 a year Lottery funding. Hodgkinson is one of Wells Trust's athlete ambassadors.[61][62] In October, it was announced that she has been provided funding on the Olympic podium programme.[63]

Keely opened her indoor season on 19 February, racing 800m with a clear win in 1:57.20 to set the British record, all-comers' record (best performance on country's soil), the fastest time anywhere for 20 years, the fastest ever mark by a teenager, and the sixth-fastest mark all time at the Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix. No woman had run faster indoors since the precise day she was born, when the world record was set.[64][65]

Hodgkinson is set to open her summer season on 21 May at the Birmingham Diamond League.[66]

• Diamond League champion (800 m): 2021[71]
  • 2021 (800 m): Zürich Weltklasse
• World Indoor Tour
  • 2022: Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix (800m)

Track results only. Hodgkinson competed also at the ECCA English Championships (2014, 2016, 2017, 2018) with best place being fifth on a 5 km course in 2018, and at the cross country ESAA Championships (2016, 2017, 2018) with best place being second on a 3.8 km course in 2018.[3]

Table key:   National championships;   Other National level events