Keely Hodgkinson headlined the UK Athletics Championships, but one athlete deleted her Instagram account because of the Olympic champion
Welsh 400m star Charlotte Henrich revealed she deleted Instagram in order to keep her head straight ahead of a showdown with Keely Hodgkinson at the UK Athletics Championships. The bold move paid dividends, as the 19-year-old defeated the Olympic champion in their heat before going on to claim bronze.
Hodgkinson is arguably the biggest name in British athletics, having claimed 800m gold at Paris 2024, following her silver at the Tokyo Games. She also secured the world indoor title earlier this year.
As she pushes to shatter the outdoor 800m women’s world record, Hodgkinson switched to the 400m discipline this month to sharpen her speed, making her one of the standout draws at the UK Athletics Championships in Birmingham on 20 and 21 June.
Henrich, 19, came face to face with Hodgkinson in the heats and remarkably, beat her into second place. Yet the teenager confessed afterwards that she had been riddled with anxiety ahead of the contest, even going as far as wiping one of her social media accounts to escape the noise.
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“It’s scary, not going to lie, to be lining up with an Olympic champion right behind you,” Henrich told the BBC. “All I had to do was run my own race and kind of ignore it.
“Before it was like, ‘Pretend the crowd is cheering for you.’ I actually deleted Instagram so I wouldn’t see the predictions [for the race] and stuff like that.
“Then I kept getting these news reports, like ‘Keely does the 400,’ I don’t want to see this! I’m so stressed!’ But it’s nice to get that done and get the win.”
In the finals, Henrich clocked an impressive 50.58s, smashing a 44-year Welsh record in the 400m. World indoor champion Amber Anning was granted a second opportunity following a false start and claimed the title in 50.16 seconds, but Hodgkinson did not take part.
As the athletes prepared to race, Hodgkinson left the track in tears and withdrew from the event. She subsequently issued a statement explaining what had happened.
She said: “I wasn’t feeling 100 per cent standing on the start line, so I made the tough decision to step away and not race. I didn’t want to risk anything ahead of this summer.”
On Instagram, she posted: “Leaving champs healthy! Sometimes the hard decision is saying no, body wasn’t feeling 100 [per cent], exciting summer ahead.”
The BBC commentary team later reported that they had been informed by Hodgkinson’s coach, Jenny Meadows, that the athlete had pulled out after she “felt a little twinge in her last strides before the race.”
Assuming her recovery progresses smoothly, it is anticipated that supporters may next see Hodgkinson at the Eugene Diamond League in Oregon on July 4. This will be in her preferred 800m as she pursues her goal of breaking Jarmila Kratochvilova’s women’s record.