Keely Hodgkinson

Keely participated in the British Schools Modern Biathlon Championships in London when she was ten years old. With a personal best time of 1:34.28, she placed second in the 500 meters and eighth overall. Keely had a 14-event winning streak in running in 2013. She became the first Leigh Harriers girl to win the individual under-11 title in both the South East Lancashire League and the Red Rose League by winning a one-mile cross country race. Two weeks later, she competed in her 16th unbeaten event, winning the 2 km race with a 45 second advantage. She claimed the 800 and 1200 meter races in Greater Manchester as a first-year U13 athlete.

She won all 13 of her track races in 2014, including many 800 and 1500 meter contests and numerous cross country races. On a cross country course of 2.75 kilometers, she won her third Greater Manchester championship. Later on, she successfully defended both of her track titles while setting championship records. She placed third in the 800 m under-15 events at both the England Championships and the ESAA English Schools’ Championships when she was 14 years old. Hodgkinson started to focus on this distance around that time while also competing in cross-country races. In 2017, she claimed her first gold medal at the England Championships, setting a personal best of 2:06.85. She also won the 1500-meter race in the UK School Games.

At the age of 16, Hodgkinson won the under-20 800 m title for England in June 2018. She took home a gold medal at the European U18 Championships held in Gyr, Hungary, the following month, finishing in 2:04.84 and shattering the competition record in the process. She added titles in the UK School Games and the England under-17s in August, both with a competition record. Wigan Borough Council honored Hodgkinson with the Sports Achiever of the Year in October.

Her athletic season in 2019 was impacted by shin issues throughout the majority of the winter. Despite this, she achieved a new personal best of 2:03.40 and finished second at the England under-20s and bronze at the U20 Europeans held in Bors, Sweden. Hodgkinson won the 800 m race at the Vienna Indoor Track & Field tournament on February 1 with a European U20 record time of 2:01.16 at only 17 years old. She improved by 0.4 seconds both the 2015 European U20 record set by Anta Hinriksdóttir and the long-standing British U20 record of 2:02.88 set by Kirsty Wade in 1981. She won her first national championship at the British Indoor Championships in the same month. She also won the British outdoor championship in September, making her the youngest winner since 1974.

Four days after turning 19 years old, Hodgkinson won her first senior major championship, the women’s 800 metres, defeating a strong field in Toru to become the youngest woman to ever win the European Indoor Championships. With this, she also became the first British winner at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in over 50 years. At the Golden Spike in Ostrava in May, Keely won her first significant international outdoor race. She ran the distance in 1:58.89, breaking Charlotte Moore’s long-standing UK junior record and setting a new record by over a second.

She edged over seasoned Scottish duo Laura Muir and Jemma Reekie in the sprint to defend her British championship at the Nationals, which served as Olympic trials, at the end of June. Hodgkinson took almost two seconds off her previous personal best to finish second to Athing Mu at the Tokyo 2020 Games in 1 minute and 55.88 seconds. She smashed the 1978 European U20 record of 1:57.45 as well as Kelly Holmes’ 26-year-old British record of 1:56.21. In the Diamond Circuit, Hodgkinson finished second at the Brussels Memorial Van Damme, fifth at the Prefontaine Classic, and won her first 800 m Diamond Trophy by winning the Zürich Weltklasse final in 1:57.98 in September.

Hodgkinson began her indoor athletics season in 2022 on February 19 in the Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix, winning the 800 m race decisively in 1:57.20. It was the woman’s quickest indoor performance in 20 years. At the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, in July, Hodgkinson finished second and won the silver medal with a performance that was a season’s best of 1:56.38. She shockingly lost to Mary Moraa at the Commonwealth Games 2022, earning a silver medal with a time of 1:57.40. At the European Championships Munich 2022, she swept her event with ease, living up to her reputation as she claimed her first significant senior outdoor championship title.

Her greatest rivalry as of now is with Athing Mu, the United States middle-distance runner. Mu defeated Hodgkinson in both the major tournaments, i.e., the Tokyo Olympics 2020 and World Championships 2022 in Oregon to clinch gold medals. Hodgkinson would try to avenge her defeat the next time they meet each other.

Hodgkinson was born on March 3, 2022, and was raised in Atherton in Greater Manchester. She has three younger siblings.  Her father Dean had previously run the London Marathon, and her mother Rachel had trained for a period with Leigh Harriers. Keely attended Leigh Harriers, the athletic club, at the age of nine, but first swam for Howe Bridge Aces before committing to running full-time. She went to Loughborough College and Fred Longworth High School in Tyldesley. She enrolled at the Leeds Beckett University’s criminology program in 2020 before taking a year off in 2021.