Olympic champion continues her fine form with fastest 400m ever and is now looking to double up at the World Indoor Championships.
Keely Hodgkinson’s blistering start to 2026 continued on Sunday afternoon (March 1) as she clocked her fastest 400m ever with a run of 51.49 at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, lowering her previous indoor PB of 52.42 with a time that is also faster than her outdoor best of 51.61.
It was the latest in a string of outstanding performances from the Olympic champion, whose first appearance of the year brought a British indoor 800m record of 1:56.33 on February 14 before she then smashed the long-standing world record with 1:54.87 in Liévin five days later.
Her preparations for what will be a first appearance at the World Indoor Championships appear to be going perfectly to plan – so much so that AW understands Hodgkinson is looking to be considered for the British 4x400m team in Toruń, despite the relay final taking place just 45 minutes after the women’s 800m final on the last day of competition in Poland.
“Put me on the second leg!” she grinned after completing her first 400m in two years. “I’ve got to be happy with an outright PB. I did want [to run] slightly faster but it’s so different to an 800m and it was good to step down [in distance].”
The longer event will of course take precedence in Poland as Hodgkinson rides this wave of momentum ahead of a championships she has been been unable to compete in thus far due to injury.
“I really want to just bucket list this one off so that I can at least say I’ve done one,” said the European 800m champion, who will arrive as a heavy favourite to add another gold medal to her collection. It’s a situation she is embracing.
“To go in as a favourite is amazing,” she said. “I’m privileged and enjoying being in this position. I like living off the expectation.”
That expectation is always high around an athlete who will celebrate her 24th birthday on Tuesday, but is especially so now after that world record-breaking performance in France. Hodgkinson was granted a two-day break in the immediate aftermath by her coach Trevor Painter, a chance to process everything that had happened – mentally as much as physically.
“I did a run two days after that world record and I just thought: ‘How the hell [did I do that]? I felt like ‘s***’!,” laughed Hodgkinson. “But I’ve been through highs like that before and I know how to navigate it, come back again and still want more. It was good to step down [in distance] today. I think if I’d have tried to run another 800m it would have been a little bit deflating compared to the last one!
“Now we’ll be going into a top-up training block, then head to worlds and hopefully get the job done there.”
Hodgkinson was just one of a number of athletes from the Manchester-based M11 Track Club, led by Painter and his wife Jenny Meadows, competing in a series of invitational races that were incorporated into the schedule at the Scottish Athletics Combined Events Championships.
Georgia Hunter Bell is a world silver medallist over 800m and, though she will be competing over 1500m in Poland, raced over the shorter distance in Glasgow.
Running her first indoor 800m since the BUCS Championships of 2015, she not surprisingly destroyed her previous best of 2:07.12, winning in 1:57.80 to break the Scottish all-comers 800m record and move third in the UK all-time list on the track where she finished fourth at the 2024 World Indoor Championships.
The 32-year-old had been looking to break the European Indoor 1500m record at the Liévin meeting but missed out on that mark and was left frustrated by the pacing, so she was happy to let some of that frustration out on the track.
“I was gutted not to run the European record in Liévin,” she said. “I was very much in shape for that, but the pacing was a mess, which was tough. I know where I’m at and I’ve worked really hard this winter, so I’m excited for the World Indoors. I think it’s going to be a really good 1500m. I feel like, every week, across the world there’s someone different coming through.”
Hunter Bell will have medals in mind and didn’t want to elaborate too much on the recent news that her World Indoors 1500m bronze from last year will be upgraded to silver following the two-year ban of Ethiopia’s Diribe Welteje, who had finished second in Nanjing.
“I decided to park that,” she said. “It was race week and you don’t want your emotions to be too up and down so I think I’ll process it more next week. I’m happy but there were mixed emotions as well.”
Meanwhile, Revee Walcott-Nolan bounced back from the disappointment of coming third in the 1500m at the British Indoor Championships with an indoor PB of 4:01.50 – the fourth-fastest ever by a Briton – while Jack Higgins ducked under the World Indoors qualifying standard in the men’s race with 3:35.60. Matthew McKenna improved his own British U20 800m record with a run of 1:47.19.
The British Indoor Combined Events titles were also decided in Glasgow, with Sammy Ball producing a PB of 5819 to win men’s heptathlon gold from Callum Newby’ Scottish record of 5731. Thea Brown took the honours in the women’s pentathlon with a winning score of 4320.
Full results here