SMILE! THE MEDALS JUST KEEP ON COMING
TEARS of joy ruined the eyelashes Keely Hodgkinson had delicately curled just moments before running the race of her life on Team GB’s greatest day at the Tokyo Olympics yesterday.
The 19-year-old sensation’s world will never be the same again after she smashed Dame Kelly Holmes’ 26-year-old British record in the 800metres to seize a silver medal – as a further eight medals took the nation’s haul to 43.
Trying to speak through the tears, Keely dedicated her success to parents Rachael, a former bank worker, dad Dean, who has a metal fabricating firm, and sisters Tilly, Jessica and brother Sam.
The Wigan flyer said: “It is our medal. I cannot always go on holiday with my family, sometimes they don’t go away and make sure I am rested and training well.
“I know my sister will be crying, my parents will be crying, they will be proud of me. My friends are going to be like: ‘What is she crying for?’ It means so much.”
Keely’s coach Jenny Meadows, who won world bronze in 2009, tweeted a picture of the teenager curling her eyelashes in the build-up to the race. She said: “I have become accustomed to discussing race plans whilst she is doing her makeup
#relaxed.”
Keely’s success was part of Terrific
Tuesday with Team
GB winning two sailing golds, four further silvers across sailing, cycling and boxing and a diving bronze.
Prime Minister
Boris Johnson congratulated the athletes in a video message for “putting a smile on the faces of millions across the country”.
He added: “I just want to say congratulations, keep going, we’re all rooting for you.”
While success is coming from across an array of sports, there was frustration at the athletics stadium until Hodgkinson chased home fellow 19-year-old
Athing Mu of the
US. The Briton clocked 1 minute 55.88 seconds to beat Dame Kelly’s 1995 record of 1 minute 56.21 seconds.
The rising star, who has gone from being virtually unknown to a podium finish at her first
Games, said: “I’m pretty speechless. Kelly Holmes is a legend.” And she said of the growing rivalry with her US counterpart: “Teenagers taking on the podium is incredible.”
Keely is the first British woman to get a medal in the 800metres since Dame
Kelly took gold in Athens in
2004 and the Leeds Beckett University criminology student succeeded without official funding.
The pandemic resulted in no new additions to the World-Class Performance Programme in 2020. She has instead been backed by Barrie Wells, a millionaire businessman who helped fund 18 athletes including Jessica Ennis-Hill and Katarina Johnson-Thompson.
The philanthropist had promised her the chance to drive an Aston Martin if she made the final.
Her team-mate Jemma Reekie also motored but was edged out of bronze in fourth while Alex Bell finished seventh. It was however the first time three British women had qualified for an Olympic final.
Scot Jemma, 23, set a personal best but was disappointed, saying: “You can’t complain if you’re fourth in the Olympics, but you can because you’re just outside those medals. But you have to learn. Paris isn’t far away.” Leeds-born Alex, 28, financed training by working in a sports shop. She also claimed a personal best and admitted her goal was “not to come last”.
Team GB’s sailing glory also sparked tearful scenes as proud family members watched Giles Scott retain his Olympic title in the men’s Finn class – our sixth gold running in the category – after duo
Dylan Fletcher and Stuart
Bithell triumphed in the men’s 49er.
Tokyo debutants John
Gimson and Anna Burnet claimed silver in the mixed Nacra 17 class.
Boxer Pat McCormack, right, was also placed second after losing his welterweight final against Roniel Iglesias of Cuba.
The 26-year-old top seed at 69kg was happy though. He said: “All I ever wanted was to win an Olympic medal.” The Sunderland fighter’s success is one of six medals guaranteed for GB boxers at these Games, equalling their best overseas haul. There was double silver at the velodrome. Jason Kenny equalled Sir Bradley Wiggins’ record medal tally of eight in the men’s team sprint.Wife Laura also had to settle for silver in the women’s team pursuit.
Jack Laugher, 26, dived to bronze in the men’s 3-metre springboard and said it was worth 100 times more than his gold and silver medals in Rio. Mental health issues nearly forced him to quit and he said: “This means so much. I wanted to quit earlier this year. I’d been crying myself to sleep.”
YESTERDAY truly was Terrific Tuesday, with Team GB winning eight medals – more than on any day so far in Tokyo. The success is especially exciting because so many of the Olympians are at the start of their careers. Keely Hodgkinson beat Dame Kelly Holmes’s 26-year-old 800m British record, and we can be sure this 19-year-old will strive to deliver even better results in the years to come.
Such examples of focus, ambition, discipline and achievement remind us of the power of humanity to rise to challenges and achieve the incredible. Whether it is scientists racing to develop vaccines in the heat of a crisis or athletes competing against their most formidable rivals before an audience of billions, we excel when we have the guts to go for gold.