Keely Hodgkinson runs 1:56.33 in a heat in Birmingham, a British indoor record
The Olympic champion led from the gun at the UK Indoor Championships, moved to third on the world indoor all-time list, and skipped the final to aim at Liévin.
Photograph: Keely Hodgkinson on her way to a British indoor 800 m record in Birmingham in February 2022, by rodney berry, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsKeely Hodgkinson used a heat of the Novuna UK Athletics Indoor Championships in Birmingham on Saturday as a time trial. She led from the gun, passed 400 m in 56.2 and ran 1:56.33, a British indoor record, 0.85 under her own 1:57.18 from 2023. It was the fastest women's indoor 800 m in almost 24 years and put her third on the world indoor all-time list. The world record is Jolanda Ceplak's 1:55.82 from 2002.
She did not run Sunday's final. She said the plan for six months had been the Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais in Liévin on 19 February, and that Birmingham was a run-out before it. Five days later she would take the world record there.
The championships crowned ten British champions on day one. Dina Asher-Smith won the 60 m in 7.05, a championship record and two hundredths off her own British record, from Amy Hunt, 7.15, and Aleeya Sibbons, 7.29. Jeremiah Azu took the men's 60 m in 6.56. Molly Caudery won a sixth British pole vault title at 4.65 m, Lucy Hadaway her first long jump title at 6.45 m, and Abigail Pawlett kept the 60 m hurdles in 8.05. Daniel Goriola and Tade Ojora were both given 7.78 in the men's hurdles, with Goriola the winner on the photo. In the 1500 m heats Jemma Reekie qualified fastest in 4:18.63.
A national record in a heat, by a runner who had already told everyone the real race was next week. That is what being the best in the world looks like from the inside.
Sources: Athletics Weekly; Athletics Illustrated.
