{"id":8228,"date":"2026-02-15T01:40:04","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T20:10:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/2026\/02\/15\/record-setter-hodgkinson-sets-sights-on-world-best\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T01:40:04","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T20:10:04","slug":"record-setter-hodgkinson-sets-sights-on-world-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/2026\/02\/15\/record-setter-hodgkinson-sets-sights-on-world-best\/","title":{"rendered":"Record-setter Hodgkinson sets sights on world best"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Published10 minutes ago<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Keely Hodgkinson says she is aiming for a new world record after breaking the British 800m best at the UK Athletics Indoor Championships in Birmingham.<\/p>\n<p>The 23-year-year-old, who took Olympic gold in 2024, clocked 1:56.33 in the event&#x27;s heats to beat her own national record by almost one second.<\/p>\n<p>It was the fastest time in a women&#x27;s 800m race in 24 years and the third-fastest time in history.<\/p>\n<p>Having announced beforehand that she would not compete in Sunday&#x27;s final because she is due to take to the track at the Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais Trophee in France on Thursday, Hodgkinson described the run as &quot;a personal challenge&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I had to come to qualify for the worlds [in Poland next month] and that is why I was only doing one round,&quot; she said.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;But it was a good test. It is three years since I ran indoors, so I knew I had to go out there and stay focused.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;We didn&#x27;t set out to run a world lead, but I started well and just kept it going. It was a nice surprise. It was a really strong day.&quot;<\/p>\n<h2>&#x27;I feel like it&#x27;s my record to break&#x27;<\/h2>\n<p>Asked about targeting Jolanda Ceplak&#x27;s indoor world record of 1:55.82 set in 2002, Hodgkinson said: &quot;I have been very vocal in the past about wanting to get it.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I feel like it is my record to break. We&#x27;ll give it a good go.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Dina Asher\u2011Smith was another star to deliver a stunning performance on the first day of the event in Birmingham, claiming the women&#x27;s 60m title with a run of 7.05\u202fseconds &#8211; a tenth of a second ahead of Amy Hunt, to set a new championships record.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking afterwards, the 30-year-old said she had been &quot;feeling great for this entire indoor season&quot;, adding: &quot;Sometimes you just have to be patient, get race-sharp and wait for the times to come.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>In the men&#x27;s 60m, world and European indoor champion Jeremiah Azu, 24, retained his UK title, reaching the line in a season&#x27;s best of 6.56 seconds.<\/p>\n<p>Molly Caudery reclaimed the women&#x27;s pole vault crown by clearing a height of 4.65m with Owen Heard taking the men&#x27;s with an effort of 5.55m.<\/p>\n<p>Lucy Hadaway took victory in the women&#x27;s long jump with a leap of 6.45m, while 15.45m saw  Tito Odunaike take the men&#x27;s triple jump.<\/p>\n<p>In the women&#x27;s 60m hurdles, a personal best of 8.05 seconds secured victory for Abigail Pawlett, with Daniel Goriola taking the men&#x27;s equivalent in a season&#x27;s best 7.78.<\/p>\n<p>Madeline Down crossed the line first in the women&#x27;s para 60m final with a time of 8.24 seconds, and a time of 6.93 seconds was enough for Kevin Santos to take the men&#x27;s title.<\/p>\n<p>You can watch day two of the UK Indoor Athletics Championships, on Sunday, on BBC iPlayer, the BBC Sport app and website. Events run from 11:20 to 16:30.<\/p>\n<h2>Related topics<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/athletics\">Athletics<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Record-setter Hodgkinson sets sights on world bestImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Keely Hodgkinson was nine seconds ahead of the rest of the 800m field in BirminghamPublished10 minutes agoKee&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8229,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-decor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8228\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}