Hodgkinson says breaking 800m record would put her among athletics’ greatest

Olympic 800 metres champion Keely Hodgkinson believes breaking the oldest world record in athletics would cement her status among the greatest of all time in her discipline.

The 23-year-old British runner, who won gold at the 2024 Paris Games, shaved almost a second off the world indoor record at a meeting in Lievin, France, on Thursday.

Hodgkinson now believes she is the “closest” she has been to lowering an 800m outdoor mark that has stood for over 40 years since Jarmila Kratochvilova of the then-Czechoslovakia posted a time of one minute 53.28 seconds in a July 1983 meet in Munich.

Kratochvilova’s mark, however, has long been shrouded in allegations of drug abuse — all of which she denies — amid reports of state-sponsored doping in ‘Eastern Bloc’ countries.

Hodgkinson was in no doubt about the significance of beating Kratochvilova’s time, telling the BBC: “I think the outdoor record would be cemented GOAT (greatest of all time).

“It’s stood for a long time and been a long time since anyone’s been able to get near it. I do think it’s possible.

“It’s a difficult record and a reason why it has stood for 40-odd years. It’s literally the oldest record on track so it will be a real accomplishment to get near it and hopefully break it.

“I think this is the closest I’ve felt near it. I do really believe that we can break it, but a lot of things have got to come together.”