Briton runs 1:54.87 to take nearly a second off Jolanda Čeplak’s mark from 2002.
Keely Hodgkinson fulfilled her future when she smashed Jolanda Čeplak’s world document of 1:55.82 with 1:54.87 on the World Indoor Tour Gold in Liévin on Thursday (Feb 19).
The 23-year-old was born on the identical day – March 3, 2002 – that Čeplak set the mark and has felt for some time that it’s her destiny to say the document.
After bettering her personal British document to 1:56.33 final weekend with such ease in Birmingham, she seemed within the form of her life and ripped the document aside throughout a masterclass of 800m working within the French city.
As we additionally predicted in our preview for the assembly, Čeplak’s document has been dwelling on borrowed time and seemed nearly sure to fall in Liévin. The massive query, although, was how a lot might Hodgkinson slice off the document?
Pacemaker Anna Gryc led by 200m in 26.50 with Hodgkinson scorching on her heels in 26.80 and Audrey Werro of Switzerland shut behind. After Gryc handed 400m in 55.58 (Hodgkinson 56.01), the Briton took up the lead quickly afterwards and dropped Werro on this third lap as she handed 600m in 85.06.
Werro paid for boldly going with the tempo by fading to 1:58.38, though she held on to second place forward of Tsige Duguma of Ethiopia, who ran extra conservatively to clock 1:58.83.
Hodgkinson was a category aside, nonetheless, as she stormed residence in 1:54.87, not far exterior her British outside document of 1:54.61. Her 100m splits have been: 13.52, 13.28, 14.50, 14.71, 14.54, 14.51, 14.61 earlier than slowing to fifteen.20 within the remaining stretch.
Hodgkinson is the one British girl to presently maintain an athletics world document. She has now added the indoor 800m document to her world indoor 600m document, though three British males (Jonathan Edwards, triple bounce; Mo Farah, one hour run; Elliot Giles, highway mile) additionally maintain world information.
“I’ve been very vocal previously about desirous to get it,” mentioned Hodgkinson final weekend. “I really feel like it’s my document to interrupt. We’ll give it a great go.”
Čeplak set the document on the European Indoor Championships in Vienna after an in depth duel with Stefanie Graf from the host nation Austria. The Slovenian led from the beginning, passing 200m in 28.34, 400m in 57.34 and 600m in 86.68 earlier than finishing the ultimate lap in 29.14.
The Slovenian later served a doping ban, too, from 2007-2009, with Graf additionally suspended for 2 years in 2010. Given this, many followers regarded Hodgkinson because the unofficial world record-holder even previous to Thursday’s race.
Coincidentally, Jenny Meadows, who now coaches Hodgkinson together with her husband Trevor Painter, additionally raced the 800m on the 2002 European Indoors however didn’t end her warmth after being clipped at across the 400m mark. Pleasingly, Meadows was one of many first folks to congratulate Hodgkinson in Lievin.
“Thanks for the wonderful crowd,” mentioned Hodgkinson post-race. “I might hear you all the way in which round.”
Hodgkinson now races over 400m in Glasgow on March 1 earlier than tackling her first World Indoor Championships in Poland on March 20-22. Shifting into the outside season, Jarmila Kratochvilova’s outside world document of 1:53.28, which was set again in 1983, is unquestionably in peril so long as the Briton can keep away from the accidents which have bothered her in latest seasons.
READ MORE: Kratochvilova’s immortal world document
There was a close to miss for Jess Hull within the girls’s 2000m as her 5:26.69 missed Genzebe Dibaba’s world document of 5:23.75. Nevertheless, the Australian was an emphatic winner of the race as runner-up Salome Afonso of Portugal set a European document of 5:30.31.
In sixth, Revee Walcott-Nolan ran a UK document of 5:35.87, breaking Yvonne Murray’s 1993 mark of 5:40.86.
Hodgkinson’s coaching accomplice Georgia Hunter Bell gained the ladies’s 1500m earlier within the evening in 4:00.21 from Birke Haylom – the Ethiopian clocking 4:01.17 – and Saron Berhe, additionally of Ethiopia, who ran 4:01.51. Britain’s Jemma Reekie was fourth in a season’s better of 4:02.14.
The lads’s 800m wasn’t fairly as extremely anticipated as the ladies’s race however Eliott Crestan of Belgium impressed with a 1:43.91 victory. The B race noticed Ben Pattison end third in 1:46.04 behind winner Alexander Stepanov of Germany who ran 1:45.89.
Elsewhere the ladies’s 3000m was gained by Freweyni Hailu in 8:24.59 from fellow Ethiopian Aleshign Baweke with 8:26.29 as Nadia Battocletti ran an Italian document of 8:26.44 in third, narrowly lacking Laura Muir’s European document of 8:26.41.
Within the subject, Yasser Triki of Algeria set a world lead within the males’s triple bounce of 17.35m.
