Keely Hodgkinson made a stunning return to racing after 376 days out with hamstring injuries, winning the 800m at the Diamond League in Katowice in a world-leading time of 1 minute 54.74 seconds. The Olympic gold medallist's performance was the ninth fastest in history and came just a month before the world championships in Tokyo.
The 23-year-old Briton, who had not raced since August 2023, set the wavelights to 1:54.50 and moved into second behind pacemaker Lisanne de Witte from the start. By the bell, she had the field strung out in single file, and when De Witte dropped out with 300m to go, Hodgkinson extended her lead to 10 metres by the home straight, finishing strongly before celebrating with jumps of delight.
Behind her, Kenya's Lilian Odira ran a personal best of 1:56.52 for second, while Botswana's Oratile Nowe set a national record of 1:56.72 for third. The race produced seven personal bests and two season's bests across the field.
Hodgkinson said: 'The track here is very fast. I wanted to open my season today, I was ready and it worked. I planned to run a fast time because I do not have five races any more before Tokyo, I only have today and the meeting in Lausanne. So it had to be fast and I am happy that it worked.'
In other events, Faith Kipyegon narrowly missed the 3,000m world record, finishing in 8:07.04, less than a second behind Wang Junxia's 1993 mark. In the women's 1500m, Britain's Georgia Hunter Bell took third in 3:56.00 behind winner Gudaf Tsegay (3:50.52).
