Olympic champion takes on Georgia Hunter Bell, among others, at Diamond League event on Wednesday with fellow Brits Max Burgin, Morgan Lake and Zharnel Hughes also in action
After blowing away the cobwebs in Poland on Saturday with a scintillating comeback run of 1:54.74, Keely Hodgkinson aims to build on that performance at the Diamond League in Lausanne on Wednesday (Aug 20).
Despite not racing since her Olympic 800m victory in Paris last year and overcoming three separate hamstring injuries, she recorded the second fastest time of her career as she came within a whisker of her British record of 1:54.61.
Her surprisingly fine form has renewed speculation that she could give Jarmila Kratochvílová’s long-standing world record of 1:53.28 a scare this season.
Last year her coach Trevor Painter said: “I know there is a mid to high 1:53 in there,” after seeing his athlete run an 800m predictor session of 400m in 56 seconds dead followed by 30 seconds’ rest and then 400m in 57 seconds dead.
This summer the 23-year-old British runner appears to be in similar, or even better, form.
Kratochvílová’s mark is the oldest world record in the book and is mired in controversy. Despite being part of an Eastern bloc system that was renowned for doping, the 74-year-old has always denied knowingly taking drugs. Instead, herself and her coach, Miroslav Kvac, insisted the performances were down to lots of physical work during her upbringing on a farm, huge amounts of weight training and large amounts of vitamin B12.
When there have been suggestions in the past to scrap old world records, Kratochvílová has reacted angrily. “Complete nonsense,” she said in 2017. “I have never taken banned substances.”
Reacting to criticism of her muscled physique, she added: “When you work as hard as I did, you have to sacrifice some of your looks. The women of the West don’t work as hard as I did.”
According to reports at the time, Kratochvílová was so motivated that she trained at 4am and refused to have an afternoon rest. There are stories of her sprinting in spikes on a frozen pond when her local cinder track was covered in snow in the winter and, when once recovering from Achilles surgery, she ran repetitions through a foot of water in a pool wearing a weighted vest and put a gas mask on to restrict her breathing.
Certainly, Hodgkinson’s British record looks set for improvement in coming weeks and in Lausanne she will want…
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