Keely Hodgkinson confident of being in perfect shape to claim first world title

Keely Hodgkinson believes she could not be in better shape to win a first world title this weekend having kicked on again after breaking the indoor 800m world record last month.

The Olympic champion is the overwhelming favourite for gold at the World Indoor Championships in Kujawy Pomorze, Poland, and sounded bullish when asked if she had pushed on in training after obliterating Jolanda Ceplak’s record by running 1min 54.87sec in Liévin in February.

“Yeah, training’s gone really well,” said Hodgkinson, who starts her competition with heats on Friday morning. “I’m very happy with where I am. As you get into an indoor season and you start racing and running faster and the reps get shorter and the recovery gets longer, I think you just naturally come into even more shape, which is obviously really exciting.”

Hodgkinson’s chances of gold received a further boost when her main rival, Tsige Duguma, who finished second behind her at the Paris Games in 2024, was one of four Ethiopians unable to travel to Poland due to visa issues. However Hodgkinson stressed that the competition would not just be about fast times but the challenge of being able to run well three times over three days.

“Fast times are obviously really great, but championships are just completely different and having three rounds in three days is another curveball,” she added. “That’s really tough. I’ve done it before. I quite like to have a day off. But I’m looking forward to it and this last month has been great. I couldn’t ask to be in a better position to be honest.”

A medal here would also compete the set for the 24-year-old, who has been on the podium at the Olympics, world championships, the European championships indoors and out, and the Commonwealth Games, but has missed out on the world indoors three times due to injury.

“It’s the one medal I don’t have so it would be really great to box that one off,” said Hodgkinson. “Until I’ve crossed the finish line, I’m not going to jinx anything. But I’m excited to be here and excited to compete.”