Briton runs 1:54.87 to take almost a second off Jolanda Čeplak’s mark from 2002.
Keely Hodgkinson fulfilled her destiny when she smashed Jolanda Čeplak’s world record of 1:55.82 with 1:54.87 at the World Indoor Tour Gold in Liévin on Thursday (Feb 19).
The 23-year-old was born on the same day – March 3, 2002 – that Čeplak set the mark and has felt for a while that it is her fate to claim the record.
After improving her own British record to 1:56.33 last weekend with such ease in Birmingham, she looked in the shape of her life and ripped the record apart during a masterclass of 800m running in the French town.
As we also predicted in our preview for the meeting, Čeplak’s record has been living on borrowed time and looked almost certain to fall in Liévin. The big question, though, was how much could Hodgkinson slice off the record?
Pacemaker Anna Gryc led through 200m in 26.50 with Hodgkinson hot on her heels in 26.80 and Audrey Werro of Switzerland close behind. After Gryc passed 400m in 55.58 (Hodgkinson 56.01), the Briton took up the lead soon afterwards and dropped Werro on this third lap as she passed 600m in 85.06.
Werro paid for boldly going with the pace by fading to 1:58.38, although she held on to second place ahead of Tsige Duguma of Ethiopia, who ran more conservatively to clock 1:58.83.
Hodgkinson was a class apart, however, as she stormed home in 1:54.87, not far outside her British outdoor record of 1:54.61. Her 100m splits were: 13.52, 13.28, 14.50, 14.71, 14.54, 14.51, 14.61 before slowing to 15.20 in the final stretch.
It means Hodgkinson is now the only British woman to currently hold an athletics world record, although three British men (Jonathan Edwards, triple jump; Mo Farah, one hour run; Elliot Giles, road mile) hold world records.
“I have been very vocal in the past about wanting to get it,” said Hodgkinson last weekend. “I feel like it is my record to break. We’ll give it a good go.”
Čeplak set the record at the European Indoor Championships in Vienna after a close duel with Stefanie Graf from the host nation Austria. The Slovenian led from the start, passing 200m in 28.34, 400m in 57.34 and 600m in 86.68 before completing the final lap in 29.14.
The Slovenian later served a doping ban, too, from 2007-2009, with Graf also suspended for two years in 2010. Given this, many fans regarded Hodgkinson as the unofficial world record-holder even prior to Thursday’s race.
Coincidentally, Jenny Meadows, who now coaches Hodgkinson with her husband Trevor Painter, also raced the 800m at the 2002 European Indoors but did not finish her heat after being clipped at around the 400m mark. Pleasingly, Meadows was one of the first people to congratulate Hodgkinson in Lievin.
“Thank you for the amazing crowd,” said Hodgkinson post-race. “I could hear you all the way around.”
Hodgkinson now races over 400m in Glasgow on March 1 before tackling her first World Indoor Championships in Poland on March 20-22. Moving into the outdoor season, Jarmila Kratochvilova’s outdoor world record of 1:53.28, which was set back in 1983, is surely in danger as long as the Briton can avoid the injuries that have bothered her in recent seasons.
READ MORE: Kratochvilova’s immortal world record
There was a near miss for Jess Hull in the women’s 2000m as her 5:26.69 missed Genzebe Dibaba’s world record of 5:23.75. However, the Australian was an emphatic winner of the race as runner-up Salome Afonso of Portugal set a European record of 5:30.31.
In sixth, Revee Walcott-Nolan ran a UK record of 5:35.87, breaking Yvonne Murray’s 1993 mark of 5:40.86.
Hodgkinson’s training partner Georgia Hunter Bell won the women’s 1500m earlier in the night in 4:00.21 from Birke Haylom – the Ethiopian clocking 4:01.17 – and Saron Berhe, also of Ethiopia, who ran 4:01.51. Britain’s Jemma Reekie was fourth in a season’s best of 4:02.14.
The men’s 800m wasn’t quite as highly anticipated as the women’s race but Eliott Crestan of Belgium impressed with a 1:43.91 victory. The B race saw Ben Pattison finish third in 1:46.04 behind winner Alexander Stepanov of Germany who ran 1:45.89.
Elsewhere the women’s 3000m was won by Freweyni Hailu in 8:24.59 from fellow Ethiopian Aleshign Baweke with 8:26.29 as Nadia Battocletti ran an Italian record of 8:26.44 in third, narrowly missing Laura Muir’s European record of 8:26.41.
In the field, Yasser Triki of Algeria set a world lead in the men’s triple jump of 17.35m.