Ever since she kicked off her outdoor 2026 season, Keely Hodgkinson has had only one goal: Jarmila Kratochvílova’s 800m outdoor record. Things haven’t gone to plan, though, as she finished second to Audrey Werro in her first 800m race of the season. The kicker? Werro clocked the third-fastest time ever. Eugene was supposed to be different. Instead, Hodgkinson crossed the line second and revealed that four days earlier, she couldn’t even walk.

That was after she suffered a knee injury during a cooldown earlier in the month. So much so that the 24-year-old even raced in Eugene with strapping and tape over both her knees.

“Shocking, to be honest,” Hodgkinson told reporters when asked about her performance. “It’s not good. I don’t know. It’s been a bit of a week. My knee’s taped up. I took a bad fall last week, so four days ago, I couldn’t even walk. I guess it’s gonna take a couple of weeks to be able to line up, but yeah, I wanted a lot more than that, obviously.

“Yeah, I hope so. Like I say, emotions are quite raw straight after, so yeah, it’s a bit of a tough one. I can’t even really remember it, so I’ll talk to coach and see how I felt, and yeah, I’ll just focus on the next one.”

In the end, though, it wasn’t the performance many expected from Hodgkinson. The Olympic gold medalist likely wanted to lay down a marker before the London Diamond League in two weeks, reportedly targeting 1:53.50. Instead, pacemaker Paris Peoples blazed through the course, with Hodgkinson opting to tuck in alongside Sanu Jallow-Lockhart.

By the 400m mark, Peoples had clocked 53.58 while the rest of the pack were considerably behind, keeping their own tempo. The moment the runners hit the 500m mark, though, things changed. Both Keely Hodgkinson and reigning World Champion Lilian Odira started to take things under control.

This was not the first time the two had battled it out for first place. At the World Championship in 2025, Odira edged out a win to take the 800 m world title. Once again, it was the Kenyan who came out on top with a 1:56.19 sec finish.

Hodgkinson managed to finish second with 1:56.73. Many speculated that the 24-year-old’s knee injury played a part, but she downplayed it.

“No, I think I arrived just in time,” the Olympian added when asked if the injury affected her race. “Like, if the race had been two hours prior, maybe a bit more uncomfortable. Managed to run yesterday and felt pretty good.

“But, yeah, I guess when you’re racing this caliber of people, like, any little thing can. It’s not really ideal, so. But it is what it is. I just did the best I could with the cards I was dealt with.”

Injury may have disrupted her momentum in Eugene, but it was a stark contrast to where Hodgkinson believed she stood just weeks earlier. Before the setback, the Olympic champion had described her preparation as the smoothest and most consistent of her career as she chased the world record.

Keely Hodgkinson opens up on training for the world record

There’s been no denying the talent that Keely Hodgkinson has. The now 24-year-old has always been a serial winner, becoming England’s U20 800m champion at 16. However, since Paris, injuries have hit the British athlete hard, with hamstring issues affecting her the most.

A tear ahead of the 2025 World Indoors saw her miss a chunk of the season, returning in mid-August. Even before her gold, Keely Hodgkinson suffered a series of injuries in 2024 but recovered in time to compete at the Olympics. 2026, so far, has been as close to perfect as she could have been until the fall that damaged her knees.

While not a bad injury, it still stalled her momentum, and her second consecutive second-place finish in a DL meet proved that. Even then, the 24-year-old remains confident, as she attested in May that her preparations for the world record attempt are going well.

“So far, the preparation has gone very, very well,” the Olympic champion told the Guardian in May. “I’m very happy with where I’m at, I’m building on the indoor season that we’ve had.

“I’ve been healthy for a year now. I’ve not missed a training session, so I’m in a really, really good place. I’ve been able to put together a speed block that we hope is going to come together with my 800 in a few weeks.”

That’s her target after all: breaking Jarmila Kratochvílova’s 1:53.28 800m outdoor world record. Hodgkinson already owns the indoor world record at the distance, having broken Jolanda Ceplak’s time in February. At the moment, she sits sixth on the list with 1:54.33, more than a second behind Kratochvílova. Even Audrey Werro (1:53.80) is closer than her, which doesn’t make the Brit’s job any easier.

For now, Hodgkinson’s focus has shifted from chasing records to making sure the knee fully settles. Only then can the Olympic star’s pursuit of Kratochvílová’s mark truly begin again.