Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson has hailed the dawning of a generational women’s 800 metres cohort and revealed her rivalry with Swiss breakout star Audrey Werro is not finished for the season.
Werro beat Hodgkinson by two tenths of a second in Friday night’s European final in Birmingham – snapping a championship record that had stood since 1982 in the process – as she crossed the line in one minute 54.81 seconds.
Having been beaten by Werro on home soil, Hodgkinson is now looking to enact immediate revenge on her 22-year-old rival as part of a world-class line-up at the Zurich Diamond League meet on the final weekend of August.
“I signed myself up for Zurich because I knew everyone was in it but me,” Hodgkinson revealed after adding European silver to her golds from 2022 and 2024.
“I want to be in with the best, and I think that’s going to bring out the best in me.
“There’s no point in me going to a race and time-trailling at the front. The more fun is when you’ve got everyone together, everyone’s going at it and you don’t know which way it’s going to go.
“I hope everyone enjoys watching the level of athletes that we have because that’s difficult to come across in generations.”
Event newcomer Femke Broeders-Bol took bronze in Birmingham 0.53 seconds after Hodgkinson crossed the line.
The Zurich line-up includes Werro, British world silver medallist Georgia Hunter Bell – Hodgkinson’s training partner – reigning world champion Lilian Odira of Kenya and Dutchwoman Broeders-Bol.
The latter, a two-time world 400m hurdles champion, announced her surprise switch to the 800m last year, when she told European Athletics she was coming into the event as “a beginner, but not a beginning athlete anymore”, but admitted “I have a clue about watching it, but I don’t have a clue running it.”
Just how far she can push in her new event remains to be seen, adding an element of intrigue to each of her races, but she is rapidly accelerating along the learning curve.
Broeders-Bol made her outdoor 800m debut at the Golden Spike Ostrava in June, and raced just three more times before her heat, semi-final and final in Birmingham.
Hodgkinson accepts she will suffer the occasional defeat, but appreciates the event – and the sport – is better for it.
“People don’t remember what you didn’t do, they remember what you did,” added Hodgkinson.
“I think in the moment (of losing), sometimes it can feel really big, and it feels like do-or-die or life or death, but this is what I trained to do. I’m happy to be doing that.
“I was healthy on the start line today, and I’m glad all three of us could come together and battle that out. Because that’s one thing, making it to the start line with all good athletes in good top form, and just seeing what happens.”
Hunter Bell, who qualified for Sunday’s 1500m final from Saturday’s heats, added: “I think it’s awesome. We want to have these battles over the next few years and these really exciting races where you genuinely don’t know who’s going to win.”
