Keely Hodgkinson sent another ominous warning to her rivals before the World Athletics Championships next month as she smashed the meeting record to win the 800m at the Lausanne Diamond League.
In weather more akin to Manchester in October than a summer’s night in Switzerland, Hodgkinson ran 1min 55.69sec to beat a quality field by 10 metres and win her second race in five days.
True, the Olympic champion’s time was nearly a second outside her performance on Saturday in Poland, where she ran the ninth quickest in history. But in cool, wet conditions she still easily ran the second fastest time of the year.
Audrey Werro of Switzerland took second in 1:57.34 after passing Hodgkinson’s training partner, Georgia Hunter Bell, in the closing metres. But they were all in a different stratosphere to Hodgkinson, who wiped from the record books Maria Mutola’s time of 1:56.25, set in 2002.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better start this season,” said Hodgkinson, who until Saturday had not raced for 376 days after sustaining three hamstring tears in nine months. “When the pace goes like that, you just forget about everyone else and it paid off with a solid performance.”
Hunter Bell, the Olympic 1500m bronze medallist, was more frustrated by her performance. “It was a little cold and wet, but coming from England we can’t really complain,” she said. “I still wanted to run quicker.”
Hunter Bell will announce this week whether she will run the 800m or 1500m at the world championships in Tokyo. This race will not have made her decision any easier.
Horse racing aficionados are well acquainted with the Bounce Factor – the tendency for horses to run very well after an extended break and then to perform poorly on their second race back. There was no sign of that with Hodgkinson.
This victory in Lausanne also sent a deeper message: you take on the world No 1 at your peril. As the world indoor champion Prudence Sekgodiso found out.
The pacemaker Eveline Saalberg brought the field through 400m in a lightning quick 56.04, with the Briton a couple of strides back in second, before dropping out. At that point only Sekgodiso decided to go with the scorching pace Hodgkinson was setting. And for a while it looked like she might give her something to think about as the pair went through 600m in 85sec. But in the last 200m the South African’s tank emptied and she slipped back from second to sixth, as Hodgkinson powered to victory.
At one point there looked like being another British victory in the men’s 800m, with Max Burgin leading a high-quality field in the final 50m. However, as the rain lashed down, the American Josh Hoey struck for home to win in 1:42.82 with the Olympic champion, Emmanuel Wanyonyi, taking second. Burgin was fourth in 1:43.44.
Two other Britons, Dina Asher‑Smith and Daryll Neita, would have been less enamoured with their performances in the women’s 200m. Asher-Smith made a decent start but she was run down by the American Brittany Brown, who won in 22.23sec, with Favour Ofili second. Despite a fast start, Asher-Smith could only finish fifth in 22.64 while Neita was seventh in 22.73.
Meanwhile in the men’s 100m, the Olympic champion, Noah Lyles, suffered another defeat as he was beaten by Jamaica’s Oblique Seville.
In driving rain, Seville produced the performance of the night to win in 9.87sec, with Lyles second in 10.02. It was the American’s second defeat in four days, after losing to another Jamaican, Kishane Thompson, on Saturday.
• This article was amended on 21 August 2025. An earlier version said that Keely Hodgkinson went through 800m in 85sec; however, this was her time after 600m.
