Keely Hodgkinson tackles 400m at UK Athletics Indoor Champs
The women's 400m at the UK Athletics Indoor Championships in Birmingham on February 26-27 has an intriguing twist. Keely Hodgkinson, the Olympic 800m silver medallist, is dropping down in distance to compete over two laps of the indoor track and looks poised to give the sprinters a run for their money in her first ever indoor race at the distance.
Last Saturday at the Müller Indoor Grand Prix Birmingham, Hodgkinson set a British indoor record for 800m of 1:57.20. It adds to the outdoor national record of 1:55.88 she set in the Olympic final last year when finishing runner-up to Athing Mu of the United States.
Following those Tokyo Games the 19-year-old ran 400m for her club at a Premier North division event at the National Athletics League in Nottingham and clocked a PB of 52.61 to win – and she clearly got a taste for the shorter distance as she wants to run it again this weekend.
Hodgkinson, who turns 20 on March 3, probably won’t start as the event favourite, though. That honour goes to Olympic 400m hurdler Jessie Knight, whose indoor PB of 51.57 is a second quicker than Hodgkinson has run outdoors.
Hodgkinson's quadriceps injury in early January also affected her ability to do speed work during a warm-weather training trip to South Africa, although you would barely have known it after seeing her smash the British 800m record last weekend.
Hodgkinson said after last weekend's race: "I wrote down the aims for this year and one of them was a British indoor record and I just want to build on this year.
"I was 100% in shape for this record and I just wanted to go for it and there were some good girls in that race. I've never run in front of a British crowd this big and it was such a comfortable environment.
"I think all four of the major championships is possible," she added. "My body I think will be able to but it comes down to the emotional and mental energy going from one to another."
Given her background in cross-country and the stamina she shows in training, Hodgkinson's coaching team of Jenny Meadows and Trevor Painter believe her future could lie at 1500m one day. But for now they are impressed with the natural speed she shows in training.
Meadows admits the youngster is even beating the training track times that she used to do (Meadows ran 52.500 and 1:57.93 for 400m and 800m respectively during her career).
This weekend in addition to Knight this weekend, Hodgkinson will face Ama Pipi, who ran 51.08 last year, plus Hannah Williams and Victoria Ohuruogu, among others.
It could should be a fascinating match-up with the 400m heats at 12:50pm on Saturday, semi-finals 5.15pm on Saturday and final at 3:46pm on Sunday.
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