Keely Hodgkinson out of the Keely Klassic with hamstring injury

The Olympic 800m champion skilled some soreness in her hamstring throughout her closing coaching session earlier than the meet

Keely Hodgkinson has been pressured to drag out of the Keely Klassic (February 15) as a result of a hamstring harm.

Throughout her closing coaching session earlier than the occasion, the Olympic 800m champion skilled some soreness in her hamstring.

A scan later revealed a problem which means she will likely be unable to race this weekend.

Though Hodgkinson is now a doubt for the European Indoor Championships (March 6-9), she nonetheless hasn’t given up on her ambition of competing on the World Indoor Championships (March 21-23).

“I gained’t lie – once I bought the information this afternoon, I shed a tear,” Hodgkinson stated. “I’ve labored so onerous for this second and was in the most effective form of my life. I’m completely gutted that I gained’t have the ability to race for the followers, particularly after so many have purchased tickets to see me try to break the world report.

“However this occasion was by no means nearly me – it was all the time about showcasing British expertise, creating one thing new for the game and bringing extra vitality and leisure to athletics. That’s one thing I’m dedicated to for the long run.

“I’ll be in Birmingham on Saturday doing every part I can to ensure it’s a tremendous evening for the athletes and the followers. I wish to assist create an actual competition environment, interact with as many younger individuals as potential, and hopefully encourage the following technology to fall in love with monitor and subject.”

Hodgkinson had deliberate to interrupt the world indoor 800m report on Saturday, which might’ve been her first race since securing the Olympic gold medal over two laps in Paris.

The 22-year-old’s goal was Jolanda Čeplak’s 1:55.82, which was set by the Czech athlete on March 3, 2002 – the identical day Hodgkinson was born.

Hodgkinson, who’s the British 800m record-holder each indoors (1:57.18) and outdoor (1:54.61), had acknowledged {that a} world report would take her profession to a different stage.

“It’s a report that I’ve been after for a few years now,” she completely advised AW in our February journal. “I’ve been within the form to do it earlier than but it surely simply hasn’t fairly come out, and that’s simply the fact of the game.

“I do really feel prefer it’s mine for the taking, as a result of it was set on the precise date that I used to be born. I’d simply love to have the ability to give it go in entrance of a house crowd.”

Again in December, Hodgkinson was topped BBC Sports activities Persona of the Yr, the primary individual from athletics to attain the feat since Mo Farah in 2017.

Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows, who prepare Hodgkinson at M11 Observe Membership, have been additionally named as BBC Sports activities Persona Coaches of the Yr.

Anticipate plenty of British report makes an attempt on the Keely Klassic

Though Hodgkinson’s withdrawal is a blow, plenty of British athletes will nonetheless be aiming to interrupt nationwide indoor information in Birmingham.

Georgia Bell, who secured the Olympic 1500m bronze medal in Paris, desires to interrupt Laura Muir’s nationwide indoor mark of three:59.58.

Final summer time, Bell recorded a time of three:52.61 on her strategy to the rostrum on the Stade de France, bettering Muir’s out of doors report of three:53.79 from the Paris Diamond League.

After an unbelievable 4 months as knowledgeable runner Bell, who labored 10-hour days in cybersecurity, has now shut down the laptop computer and turned to athletics on a full-time foundation.

The Brit, who like Hodgkinson is coached by Painter and Meadows, lately returned from a coaching camp in South Africa and is now into the total swing of the indoor season.

After impressing over 3000m on the New Stability Indoor Grand Prix in Boston, she adopted it up with victory within the Wanamaker Mile on the Millrose Video games, turning into simply the fourth British feminine athlete in historical past to win the distinguished trophy.

Within the ladies’s 300m, Lina Nielsen will look to raised Dina Asher-Smith’s British indoor mark of 36.77.

Asher-Smith recorded that point at altitude in Albuquerque final February, with Nielsen’s private greatest over the gap indoor being the 37.35 she ran in 2022.

That mark was the nationwide indoor report on the time, earlier than Jodie Williams clocked 37.24 in Iowa a 12 months later.

Callum Dodds, who recorded an outright 800m private better of 1:47.79 in Spain final weekend, is concentrating on the British indoor 600m report on Saturday.

The present mark is held by Tom Staines, who ran 1:15.31 in Albuquerque six years in the past.

Dodds boasts a better of 1:16.46 over the gap and is at the moment ranked sixth on the UK indoor all-time listing.

The boys’s 1000m was billed to be a British indoor report try from Jake Wightman however the 2022 world 1500m champion pulled out of the occasion with a small knee harm.

Nevertheless, Neil Gourley – the 2023 European indoor 1500m silver medallist – is within the line-up and will probably threaten Charlie Grice’s 2:17.20 from New York in 2020.

Gourley, who has an indoor 1000m private greatest of two:18.68, additionally ran his quickest ever indoor mile finally week’s Millrose Video games, clocking 3:49.22 in New York.

Jacob Fincham-Dukes, off the again of his 8.18m leap in Albuquerque, is the headline identify within the males’s lengthy bounce on the Keely Klassic.

The British subject eventer, who positioned fifth on the Olympics, is now second behind Greg Rutherford’s 8.26m on the British indoor lengthy bounce all-time listing.

British pole vault record-holder and world indoor champion Molly Caudery will even hope to impress on the Utilita Enviornment.

With the heartbreak of lacking out on the Olympic pole vault closing now effectively behind her, Caudery opened up her 2025 season with a 4.75m clearance in Karlsruhe final week.

Caudery’s British report is 4.92m and don’t be shocked, particularly in entrance of a house crowd, if she bought close to that peak this weekend.

There will even be a variety of different occasions on present, together with the flat sprints and dash hurdles, para occasions and college relays.

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