Keely Hodgkinson has her sights set on breaking the longest-standing world record in athletics after claiming World Indoor gold in Torun and immediately signalling bigger ambitions.
The 24-year-old won the indoor 800m in a championship-record time, then turned out for the 4x400m less than an hour later, underlining the form and determination that have driven her rapid rise. Hodgkinson says her aim for the year is “domination” — “global domination,” she added — and that this indoor title is a strong start.
The mark she’s targeting is the women’s outdoor 800m world record of 1:53.28, set by Jarmila Kratochvilova for Czechoslovakia in Munich in 1983. That time has stood for four decades and remains one of the most controversial records in the sport, with long-standing allegations about state-sponsored doping in that era which Kratochvilova has denied.
Hodgkinson is currently sixth on the all-time list with her 1:54.61 from the 2024 Olympics, where she took gold. She says confidence from a healthy, uninterrupted winter of training is a major factor in her belief that the record is within reach. “I have worked so hard this winter and most importantly I have had uninterrupted training,” she said. “I can go into races and focus completely on the job in hand… I am a very happy girl.”
She conceded that taking the record would require many elements to come together but insisted she has seen evidence in training and believes it is possible. Only two athletes since 2000 — Kenya’s Pamela Jelimo in 2008 and South Africa’s Caster Semenya in 2018 — have come within a second of Kratochvilova’s time.
Hodgkinson’s indoor success came alongside strong performances from training partners. Georgia Hunter Bell and Molly Caudery also claimed golds at the World Indoors, giving Great Britain three titles in roughly 30 minutes.
Caudery’s victory was a notable comeback: she had faced heartbreak at the Olympics, failing to register a mark and suffering ruptured ankle ligaments in Tokyo during warm-up. She also woke with a heavy cold on the day of her world indoor win. “It’s been heartbreak after heartbreak,” Caudery said, describing the mental and physical challenge of returning from injury. “I was thinking, obviously Paris I didn’t clear a bar, Tokyo I was out from the warm up and then yesterday, I wasn’t sure if I was even going to make it to warm up. I just thought, pull yourself together for three hours and I managed to do it.”
Hodgkinson’s campaign now moves toward a busy summer, including the European Championships. She says she wants to build on her indoor success and use current form and fitness to chase the sport’s highest marks. With Olympic, world and multiple European titles already to her name, Hodgkinson believes only a handful of achievements remain to cement a legacy she hopes will include the elusive 1:53.28.