Keely Hodgkinson of Great Britain won the women’s 800-meter final at the World Indoor Athletics Championships on Friday, clocking a championship record of 1 minute, 55.30 seconds to claim her latest world title with the second-fastest indoor performance all-time behind her own world record of 1:54.87.
Hodgkinson, the heavy pre-race favorite, took the lead early in the four-lap indoor final and never relinquished it, gradually pulling away from the field to win with clear daylight over her rivals.
The Olympic champion reached the halfway mark in 56.96 seconds before closing with a final 200 meters of under 30 seconds, breaking the previous championship record of 1:56.9.
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The silver medal went to Audrey Werro of Switzerland, who set a national record with an impressive 1:56.64, to move up to fifth on the world all-time list, while American Addison Wiley, who had impressed throughout the early rounds, took bronze in the final with a personal best time of 1:58.36.
Ethiopia’s Nigist Getachew, the silver medalist in Nanjing last year, sat in a medal position entering the final lap, but was overtaken by both Werro and Wiley and finished off the podium in fourth in 1:59.73.
The victory marked Great Britain’s first women’s 800m gold in the history of the World Indoor Championships.
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Hodgkinson’s triumph was part of a memorable night for British athletics. Two other British athletes, Georgia Hunter Bell, who posted a world-leading time of 3:58.53 in the 1500m, and Molly Caudery, the 2024 champion, who regained her title with 4.85m in the women’s pole vault, also won gold medals in the day’s final session.
