Keely Hodgkinson’s year-long absence from athletics could work in her favour when she tries to add a world title to her Olympic gold, according to Dame Denise Lewis.
A hamstring tear sustained in February followed by a couple of setbacks meant Hodgkinson was kept out of action from her crowning moment at Paris 2024 to a Diamond League meeting in Silesia last month.
But the 23-year-old marked her return by setting the fastest time of 2025 in the women’s 800 metres to show she is still the person to beat ahead of the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, which start this week.
And Lewis believes Hodgkinson, who will be hoping to break her duck at the worlds after silvers at Eugene 2022 and Budapest 2023, might feel the benefit of a long competitive break.
“There is that pressure that you wear internally when you become Olympic champion and I think being forced to sit out has and will play into her hands,” Lewis told the PA news agency.
“She’s showed great maturity after being hurt so early on in the year, missing the indoor programme, having to sit and be patient and cherry-pick her comeback, which shows she’s got the right attitude.
“There can be a lot of pressure for someone coming through wearing that title of Olympic champion to feel they have to come and show up. She’s decided to come out when she’s ready and it was an emphatic performance from her.
“I think she’ll be very difficult to beat. It’s one she’ll want to tick off – that gold medal that’s missing after the two silvers she’s had at world championships will definitely be a focus.”
Hodgkinson has made no secret of wanting to set a new world record, currently held by Czech athlete Jarmila Kratochvilova, who recorded a time of one minute 53.28 seconds 42 years ago.
Hodgkinson’s personal best, which she set in London in July last year, is 1.33 seconds slower but Lewis, speaking in her new role as England Golf ambassador, insisted Kratochvilova’s benchmark is not out of reach.
“I know it’s extremely difficult but with technology, the right mindset, the right race, the right conditions, she’s talented enough to do it,” Lewis, the 2000 Olympic heptathlon champion, said.
Katarina Johnson-Thompson is another British medal hope in Japan in the heptathlon and she will once again go up against Belgium’s Nafi Thiam, who pipped the Liverpudlian to Olympic gold last year by a wafer-thin margin of 36 points.
It was Thiam’s third successive Olympic title, but Lewis feels the pair will face stiff competition from Anna Hall, whose 7,032 points in Gotzis this year has only ever been bettered by one person.
“Kat was very close last year in Paris, painfully close,” Lewis added. “Nafi is a formidable one because she has the ability to come into championships cold, with not much form at all and just leave everyone speechless.
“Kat knows she’s beatable – that I really do believe – but they are going to face a lot more of a challenge with Anna. She’s yet to get a global gold and I think that keeps you hungry.”
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