Olympic 800m silver medalist Keely Hodgkinson has pulled out of the World Athletics Indoor Championships 2022 with a quad injury on Saturday (19). According to her coaches Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows, the British star didn’t think she would be able to challenge for the gold medal here this weekend and decided to withdraw, rather than pushing through the problem to only try for a medal.
Hodgkinson traveled to Serbia as a strong gold medal favorite in the discipline after winning the Olympic silver at the Tokyo Olympic Games last summer and started the season with a national record of 1:57.20 at the Muller Indoor Grand Prix in Birmingham in February. Read more: Blog live updates: World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22
However, the 20-year-old said that she was disappointed about pulling out of the championships, but “looking at the big picture I knew it was the right thing to do.” She said luckily it is not a major injury and she should be back to regular training in one to two weeks.
In addition to the 800m, Hodgkinson was also slated to compete in the women’s 4x400m, with the heats taking place on Sunday.
