Why Keely is on the brink of breaking the world 800m record

Keely Hodgkinson can break Jarmila Kratochvílová’s long-standing world 800m record of 1:53.28, but probably not this season.

Keely Hodgkinson

That’s the view of the newly-crowned Olympic champion’s coaches, Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows, based on an indicator session that the 22-year-old ran a week before winning gold in Paris.

Training the British holding camp at Saint Germain en Laye in France, Hodgkinson ran 400m in 56 seconds dead followed by 30 seconds’ rest and then 400m in 57 seconds dead.

Painter says: “Jen used to do it (during her 800m career) and it was really accurate. And in Tokyo it was really accurate for Keely. Then last week her times were ridiculous. So I know there a mid to high 1:53 in there.”

Kratochvílová’s mark was set in Munich 41 years ago and remains the oldest outdoor world record in the book. Such was her form at the time, the following month in Helsinki the Czech athlete won the world 800m title in 1:54.68 followed by a 400m world record of 47.99.

Despite being part of an Eastern bloc system that was renowned for doping, Kratochvílová, 73, has always denied knowingly taking drugs. Instead, herself and her coach, Miroslav Kvac, insisted the performances were down to lots of physical work during her upbringing on a farm, huge amounts of weight training and large amounts of vitamin B12.

When there have been suggestions in the past to scrap old world records, Kratochvílová has reacted angrily. “Complete nonsense,” she said in 2017. “I have never taken banned substances.”

Reacting to criticism of her muscled physique, she added: “When you work as hard as I did, you have to sacrifice some of your looks. The women of the West don’t work as hard as I did.”

According to reports at the time, Kratochvílová was so motivated that she trained at 4am and refused to have an afternoon rest. There are stories of her sprinting in spikes on a frozen pond when her local cinder track was covered in snow in the winter and, when once recovering from Achilles surgery, she ran repetitions through a foot of water in a pool wearing a weighted vest and put a gas mask on to restrict her breathing.

Hodgkinson sits No.6 on the world all-time rankings with 1:54.61 from the London Diamond League last month. But Painter and Meadows believe she can sneak inside 1:54, which is an achievement that only Kratochvílová and Russia’s Nadezhda Olizarenko, who ran 1:53.43 in 1980, have managed.

Painter says: “Keely knows she can run 1:53. Obviously the world record is a low 1:53 so we might have to wait a while for it.”

For now, Hodgkinson plans to enjoy a few days in Marbella in Spain with her family this week. “Then she’s going to aim for the Diamond League final in Brussels (Sept 13-14) and she’ll have a crack at an 800m time there,” says Painter. “With a pacemaker and Wavelights it’ll be a bit easier (than a major championship final).”

Hodgkinson says: “Right now, I will take the time to come down from this. I don’t have a World Championship gold yet, that is the one I am missing, so that would definitely be up there to go back to Tokyo, where it all began, and try and get a gold medal there. The way the women’s 800m is going and the way technology is helping us, we can start looking at the world record and see how close we can get and I think that is really exciting.”

Hodgkinson has hit such great form despite a minor injury in the winter, too. Looking back, Painter says: “We knew it was healing and if we had another two weeks we’d have been at the World Indoors – she was that close to competing – but it wasn’t worth rushing it. We had bigger fish to fry this year.”

Meadows adds: “It was a blessing in disguise as we were able to work on her strength, power and strength. She’s very good in the gym. Her hips are tall and she’s still driving when everyone else’s body is falling to bits. We also have a strong group with Georgia Bell, Sarah Healy and Erin Wallace so she’s only the fourth best endurance runner in the group!”

Painter says: “She holds her own. She’s not too far behind. If they’re doing 1km reps she’ll be four or five seconds behind.”

Hodgkinson does these longer reps to build endurance but Painter’s main ethos is all about quality training, speedwork and intensity. Given this, has he never been tempted to go down the volume route with his star athlete?

“No,” he says. “There are two ways of doing it. You can do the double threshold and high volume but for me that takes away from the speed and we’re still trying to develop that aspect with quality training. Eventually we may bring this in during the end of her career.”

With this in mind, Painter is trying to drive down Hodgkinson’s ability over 400m. Her best is 51.61 but he feels she can now run mid to low 50 seconds.

However, one of the toughest sessions the group do are sand dune reps in Formby on Merseyside. “She’s the boss on there!” says Painter.

“The boys hate those sessions. I used to go there 30 years ago when I was running. It’s a really brutal session. It’s formulates you mind as well as your physiology.”

Such training sessions will hopefully help Hodgkinson one day crack Kratochvílová’s fearsome world record. “We think she can get to No.3 all-time and maybe she can get down to the world record in the next couple of years,” says Meadows.

“She’s got to stay healthy and motivated, but I have no doubt she can do that.”

Hodgkinson also has the advantage of modern spikes from her shoe sponsor Nike and nutrition from companies like Maurten, such as their Bicarb System. “With the innovations now, I am lucky I work with one of the best brands in the world (Nike) who love their tech and advancements,” she says.

“It’s something I welcome. It is amazing when the crowd sees such great performances. Who cares how it happens? It’s great that it is there.

“That world record is the longest standing track world record, so to get anywhere near that when nobody has been near it in 30-odd years would be an incredible achievement and I’d love to give it a go.”

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