The injury forced the Olympic 800m champion to withdraw from the Keely Klassic and she will now focus on getting fit for the outdoor season
Keely Hodgkinson is likely to miss the entire indoor season, due to a hamstring injury she picked up ahead of the Keely Klassic.
During her final training session before the event that bears her name, the Olympic 800m champion experienced some soreness in her hamstring.
Hodgkinson
A scan later revealed that Hodgkinson suffered a grade 3C tear to her tendon at the top of the hamstring, with doctors providing a “rough estimate” of three to six weeks of recovery.
The injury forced the Olympic 800m champion to withdraw from the Keely Klassic and she will now focus on getting fit for the outdoor season
Keely Hodgkinson is likely to miss the entire indoor season, due to a hamstring injury she picked up ahead of the Keely Klassic.
During her final training session before the event that bears her name, the Olympic 800m champion experienced some soreness in her hamstring.
A scan later revealed that Hodgkinson suffered a grade 3C tear to her tendon at the top of the hamstring, with doctors providing a “rough estimate” of three to six weeks of recovery.
That almost certainly rules her out of the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn (March 6-9) and the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing (March 21-23). She will go for a further scan in six weeks time.
The 22-year-old had been aiming to break the world indoor 800m record on Saturday (February 15) in what would have been her first race since securing Olympic gold in Paris.
Keely Hodgkinson (Getty)
“We were doing some strides at the end of my training session and I just felt some tightness in my hamstring,” Hodgkinson told AW. “I pulled back early on the rep and initially thought that it was a little bit of a cramp. So I decided to get a scan and that revealed a slight tear in the tendon at the top of the hamstring.
“This shouldn’t affect the outdoor season at all. God willing no other injuries come my way! I’m happy about that but it’s just a bit of a shame that I’ve missed the Keely Klassic and I won’t be racing for a long time.
“Getting to the top is one thing but now it’s learning about maintaining that position. This winter has been tough. Two months ago I probably wasn’t in the shape I wanted to be in when we announced this world record.
“However, I worked really hard and we pulled out a miracle. It’s a shame and annoying that we can’t show what we’ve been working on but it’s okay, I’ll get another chance next time.”
Keely Hodgkinson (Getty)
Her target in Birmingham was Jolanda Čeplak’s 1:55.82, which was set by the Slovenian athlete on March 3, 2002 – the same day Hodgkinson was born.
Hodgkinson, who is the British 800m record-holder both indoors (1:57.18) and outdoors (1:54.61), had wanted to create another piece of history by adding that world indoor mark to her CV.
“It’s a record that I’ve been after for a couple of years now,” she exclusively told AW in our February magazine. “I’ve been in the shape to do it before but it just hasn’t quite come out, and that’s just the reality of the sport.
“I do feel like it’s mine for the taking because it was set on the exact date that I was born. I’d just love to be able to give it a good go in front of a home crowd.”
Back in December, Hodgkinson was crowned BBC Sports Personality of the Year, the first person from athletics to achieve the feat since Mo Farah in 2017. Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows, who train Hodgkinson at M11 Track Club, were also named BBC Sports Personality Coaches of the Year.
Meadows believes that Hodgkinson, based on training in Font Romeu and South Africa, was in the kind of shape to smash the world indoor 800m record in Birmingham.
Jenny Meadows with Trevor Painter and Keely Hodgkinson (Getty)
“We believed that Keely could break the world record,” Meadows told AW. “Our stats have been right over the years and we’ve always tracked Keely’s progression. The last three weeks went really well and she moved forward with momentum. We even thought she could run under 1:55. But I guess when you’re pushing your body so much, it can fight back.
“We’ve been focusing on the positives and, so far, we’ve been given a very rough estimate of three to six weeks recovery. It means that we don’t have to rush anything and just get through the next phase of training, which unfortunately is a rebuild.
“You know, the day after she won BBC Sports Personality of the Year, she was back in training. Keely had a massive desire to be in world record shape. It does show us that you have to trust the process. We know what it takes for Keely to get in world record shape and it does make us feel really positive moving forward.
“Keely has never been in this kind of shape at this point during the season. The ultimate goal has always been Tokyo [gold] and hopefully she can run some 1:53s outdoors this year as well.”
Georgia Bell (Getty)
Although Hodgkinson’s withdrawal is a blow, a number of British athletes will still be aiming to break national indoor records in Birmingham.
Georgia Bell, who secured the Olympic 1500m bronze medal in Paris, wants to break Laura Muir’s national indoor mark of 3:59.58.
Meanwhile, in the women’s 300m at the Keely Klassic, Lina Nielsen will look to better Dina Asher-Smith’s British indoor mark of 36.77.
Callum Dodds, who recorded an outright 800m personal best of 1:47.79 in Spain last weekend, is targeting the British indoor 600m record – a mark held by Tom Staines, who ran 75.31 in Albuquerque six years ago.
Neil Gourley (Getty)
The men’s 1000m was billed to be a British indoor record attempt from Jake Wightman but the 2022 world 1500m champion pulled out of the event with a knee injury. However, Neil Gourley – the 2023 European indoor 1500m silver medallist – is in the line-up and could potentially threaten Charlie Grice’s 2:17.20 from New York in 2020.
Jacob Fincham-Dukes, off the back of his 8.18m leap in Albuquerque, is the headline name in the men’s long jump at the Keely Klassic.
British pole vault record-holder and world indoor champion Molly Caudery will also hope to impress at the Utilita Arena, having started her 2025 season off with clearances of 4.75m in consecutive meets.
That almost certainly rules her out of the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn (March 6-9) and the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing (March 21-23). She will go for a further scan in six weeks.
The 22-year-old had been aiming to break the world indoor 800m record on Saturday (February 15) in what would have been her first race since securing Olympic gold in Paris.
Keely Hodgkinson (Getty)
“We were doing some strides at the end of my training session and I just felt some tightness in my hamstring,” Hodgkinson told AW. “I pulled back early on the rep and initially thought that it was a little bit of a cramp. So I decided to get a scan and that revealed a slight tear in the tendon at the top of the hamstring.
“This shouldn’t affect the outdoor season at all. God willing no other injuries come my way! I’m happy about that but it’s just a bit of a shame that I’ve missed the Keely Klassic and I won’t be racing for a long time.
“Getting to the top is one thing but now it’s learning about maintaining that position. This winter has been tough. Two months ago I probably wasn’t in the shape I wanted to be in when we announced this world record.
“However, I worked really hard and we pulled out a miracle. It’s a shame and annoying that we can’t show what we’ve been working on but it’s okay, I’ll get another chance next time.”
Keely Hodgkinson (Getty)
Her target in Birmingham was Jolanda Čeplak’s 1:55.82, which was set by the Slovenian athlete on March 3, 2002 – the same day Hodgkinson was born.
Hodgkinson, who is the British 800m record-holder both indoors (1:57.18) and outdoors (1:54.61), had wanted to create another piece of history by adding that world indoor mark to her CV.
“It’s a record that I’ve been after for a couple of years now,” she exclusively told AW in our February magazine. “I’ve been in the shape to do it before but it just hasn’t quite come out, and that’s just the reality of the sport.
“I do feel like it’s mine for the taking because it was set on the exact date that I was born. I’d just love to be able to give it a good go in front of a home crowd.”
Back in December, Hodgkinson was crowned BBC Sports Personality of the Year, the first person from athletics to achieve the feat since Mo Farah in 2017. Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows, who train Hodgkinson at M11 Track Club, were also named BBC Sports Personality Coaches of the Year.
Meadows believes that Hodgkinson, based on training in Font Romeu and South Africa, was in the kind of shape to smash the world indoor 800m record in Birmingham.
Jenny Meadows with Trevor Painter and Keely Hodgkinson (Getty)
“We believed that Keely could break the world record,” Meadows told AW. “Our stats have been right over the years and we’ve always tracked Keely’s progression. The last three weeks went really well and she moved forward with momentum. We even thought she could run under 1:55. But I guess when you’re pushing your body so much, it can fight back.
“We’ve been focusing on the positives and, so far, we’ve been given a very rough estimate of three to six weeks recovery. It means that we don’t have to rush anything and just get through the next phase of training, which unfortunately is a rebuild.
“You know, the day after she won BBC Sports Personality of the Year, she was back in training. Keely had a massive desire to be in world record shape. It does show us that you have to trust the process. We know what it takes for Keely to get in world record shape and it does make us feel really positive moving forward.
“Keely has never been in this kind of shape at this point during the season. The ultimate goal has always been Tokyo [gold] and hopefully, she can run some 1:53s outdoors this year as well.”
Georgia Bell (Getty)
Although Hodgkinson’s withdrawal is a blow, several British athletes will still be aiming to break national indoor records in Birmingham.
Georgia Bell, who secured the Olympic 1500m bronze medal in Paris, wants to break Laura Muir’s national indoor mark of 3:59.58.
Meanwhile, in the women’s 300m at the Keely Klassic, Lina Nielsen will look to better Dina Asher-Smith’s British indoor mark of 36.77.
Callum Dodds, who recorded an outright 800m personal best of 1:47.79 in Spain last weekend, is targeting the British indoor 600m record – a mark held by Tom Staines, who ran 75.31 in Albuquerque six years ago.
Neil Gourley (Getty)
The men’s 1000m was billed to be a British indoor record attempt from Jake Wightman but the 2022 world 1500m champion pulled out of the event with a knee injury. However, Neil Gourley – the 2023 European indoor 1500m silver medallist – is in the line-up and could potentially threaten Charlie Grice’s 2:17.20 from New York in 2020.
Jacob Fincham-Dukes, off the back of his 8.18m leap in Albuquerque, is the headline name in the men’s long jump at the Keely Klassic.
British pole vault record-holder and world indoor champion Molly Caudery will also hope to impress at the Utilita Arena, having started her 2025 season off with clearances of 4.75m in consecutive meets.
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