Keely Hodgkinson won the 800m gold at the Paris Diamond League with a new national record

The European 800m champion and World and Olympic silver medalist Keely Hodgkinson produced an extremely strong run at the Paris Diamond League. The 21-year-old British athlete won the two-lap race in France, finishing in a new national record of 1:55.77 min. Keely Hodgkinson’s score is also No 1 in the world for the season.

“I just wanted to commit today. Then when I saw the lights go behind me, I thought OMG keep going!”, commented Keely Hodgkinson after the record. “I am a little bit shocked that I ran so fast. Paris next year, I will definitely be back. Now the aim is to stay healthy, we still have to see, I want to keep running fast. The focus is on the summer, on Budapest. What is next with such a fast time early in the season? Well, I do not know. Hopefully I will run even faster”, added she.

The American Ajee Wilson finished second in 1:58.16 min, and the bronze went to the Jamaican athlete Natoya Goule with 1:58.23 min.

Keely Hodgkinson is an English athlete specializing in the 800m. At the age of 19, she won the silver medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, breaking the British record set by Kelly Holmes in 1995. She is the 2022 World Championships and 2022 Commonwealth Games silver medalist, 2022 European champion, and a two-time European indoor champion from 2021 and 2023, with her 2021 title secured as the youngest ever European women’s indoor 800m winner.