Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson has not ruled out the possibility of breaking athletics’ longest-standing world record at the London Diamond League meeting in July.
Hodgkinson set the first world record of her career in February, smashing the 24-year-old indoor 800m marker, set on the day she was born, in one minute, 54.87 seconds in Lievin.
The Briton and her coaches are convinced she has what it takes to lower Czech athlete Jarmila Kratochvilova’s near-43-year-old outdoor 800m time of one minute, 53.28 seconds, but Hodgkinson would still require a perfect storm of conditions for it all to come together.
“Obviously I would love that to happen on home soil,” said Hodgkinson, speaking with 50 days to go until the Diamond League returns to the capital. “I get really excited about London, the whole crowd and everything. I think as a British person competing there it’s just so much fun, and it’s definitely the main thing I’m looking forward to this year on the calendar.”
Hodgkinson explained that the decision to target Kratochvilova’s record, whenever she does, will be a collective one in consultation with her coaches, Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows. “I think we have a plan of what we would like to happen, obviously,” she said. “The sport has its own plans sometimes, and it’s not something that you can straightaway plan and think, ‘Yeah, let’s do this.’ If I happen to come into shape where I think I want to go it’s sooner, or it happens to be a bit later in the season, that could just be how it goes. I’ve not missed a training session, so I’m in a really, really good place.”
Some have speculated Kratochvilova’s achievement was facilitated by performance-enhancing drugs, something the now-75-year-old has always denied, and the accusations have never been proven.
Earlier this month, the controversial Enhanced Games, which allows the use of such substances under, claims the organisation, strict medical supervision, premiered in Las Vegas. Despite offering up to one million United States dollars for a “world record”, only one participating athlete, Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev, managed to beat a world-standard time, doing so in a swimsuit banned in official competition.
In 2017, World Athletics, under the leadership of British Olympic champion Lord Sebastian Coe, the organisation’s president, established the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), an independent authority responsible for managing integrity threats.
Asked about the importance of clean sport, Hodgkinson replied: “I think it’s just having an appreciation for the hard work and dedication that we put in. I think the sport has done a great job over the last couple of decades making it a clean sport. I do trust the people that I race against, and it’s not a thought in my brain that I think about. So yeah, we will call that thing (the Enhanced Games) nonsense, because that’s what it was.”
