Teen sensation Keely in shock after winning 800m gold
LOUGHBOROUGH College student Keely Hodgkinson, left, has spoken of her shock after winning 800 metres gold on the final day of the European Indoor Championships in Torun.
Four days after her 19th birthday, Hodgkinson held Polish pair Joanna Jozwik and Angelika Cichocka at bay to become Britain’s youngest European Indoors champion since 1970.
It capped a series of remarkably composed performances from Hodgkinson, making her debut in a major senior international Championships, who crossed the line in 2 min 03.88 seconds.
Fellow Britons Ellie Baker and Isabelle Boffey finished in fourth and sixth places respectively in the final.
Hodgkinson, a student on Loughborough College’s Diploma in Sporting Excellence (DiSE) programme, told the BBC: “You never understand the shock of when it actually happens – you picture it in your head so many times but when the reality comes through it’s very different.
“I didn’t want to think about the pressure because I’m only 19 and I’m still learning.
“I wanted to take the same relaxed state as I had through the heats and the semi-final, and it really paid off because I really believed in myself.”
Hodgkinson had been tipped to win a medal after winning the British Championships last year in a time of 2 min 03.24 seconds.
She is the current under-20 world and European indoor 800m record holder, with a time of 1:59.03. Her outdoor 800m personal best is 2:01.73.
She won gold in the European Youth Championship in 2018 and the European Junior Championships in 2019.
Jo Maher, principal and CEO at Loughborough College, said: “Loughborough is synonymous with sport, supported by the best environments in which athletes can train and prepare together for careers in elite sport and competition on the global stage.”