Keely Hodgkinson sends message to rivals with stunning return after 376 days away

Keely Hodgkinson, who has not raced since winning the Olympic title last summer because of injury, ran the ninth-fastest time ever in Silesia in a sublime comeback

Keely Hodgkinson stormed to the ninth-fastest 800m ever in her first race for 376 days – and immediately confirmed her status as the woman to beat at next month’s Worlds.

The Olympic champion made her long-awaited return from a series of hamstring injuries in Silesia and clocked 1:54.74.

That time was just 0.15secs shy of her national record set in London last summer.

More importantly, it was almost two seconds faster than the next best performance in 2025 so far, the 1:56.64 posted by Ethiopia’s Tsige Duguma in May, and makes her the overwhelming favourite to turn her two world silvers into gold in Tokyo.

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Hodgkinson will race again in Lausanne on Wednesday as part of a field featuring her training partner Georgia Hunter-Bell, who has posted this season’s third-fastest 800m, before another training block ahead of Japan.

“I was just happy to step on the track after more than a year,” a beaming Hodgkinson said. “As I got closer to the race I got more and more relaxed. I enjoyed the feeling of the race.

“I planned to run a fast time because I do not have five races anymore before Tokyo. I only have today and the meeting in Lausanne. So it had to be fast and I am happy that it worked.”

Hunter Bell finished third in a stacked 1500m yesterday and will decide next week whether to run over both distances at the Worlds having admitted before Hodgkinson’s stunning return that she felt it would be easier to win an 800m medal.

Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay won in 3:50.62 with Beatrice Chebet, the recently-crowned 5000m world record holder a distant second as Hunter Bell crossed in 3:56.0.

Neither Amy Hunt nor Daryll Neita were able to trouble the top three in the 200m, while Jamaican giant Kishane Thompson pipped Olympic champ Noah Lyles in the men’s 100m by running a join meet record 9.87secs.

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