Wigan born Keely Hodgkinson will start her Olympic campaign as she lines up in the fourth heat of the 800m run at the Stade de France this evening, writes Samuel Oliphant.
The 22-year-old comes into these games hoping to improve on her last games where she finished second, back in 2021 in Tokyo.
Hodgkinson has been successful from such a young age — clean sweeping the European Championships in 2022 and 2024 plus the European Indoor Championships in 2021 and 2023.
She still has two titles that she will want to win, one of which being the World Championships and the second being the Olympic Games.
Hodgkinson comes into these games with a fastest season best of 1:54.61, something which makes for good reading, and showcases a true opportunity at gold for the young runner from Wigan.
She has finished second at the last two World Championships, being beaten by Athing Mu (USA) and Mary Moraa (Kenya) on the two separate occasions.
There have only been three names dominating the Women’s 800m in recent times — and this has been the above three — however the latter failed to qualify for the games, despite being Olympic Champion three years ago.
With Mu out of the picture, the Wigan runner’s competition will most likely come from the Kenyan, Moraa, who’s season’s best is over two seconds slower than Hodgkinson’s.
This is all dependent on the fact that the 800m runner from Wigan is able to qualify past the heats on Friday night and the Semi-finals on Saturday — before the final which is scheduled for 8.47pm on Monday night.
Hodgkinson is not the only Brit in this event who will be hoping to take silverware away from Paris.
Jemma Reekie who currently sits third in the world rankings of this event has shown good form as of late, who posted her best ever time this year, 1:55.61.
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