Keely Hodgkinson Is Crowned The Olympic 800m Champion!

Team GB’s Keely Hodgkinson has won a glorious Olympic gold in Paris to be crowned the women’s 800m champion.

Hodgkinson was the clear favourite going into the final, having run the fastest women’s 800m in the world this year. She also had the expectation of a nation on her 22-year-old shoulders, and she had something to prove.

She won 800m silver at the Tokyo 2021 Olympics, and she won World Championship silver in 2022 and 2023. After that third silver, which she won in Budapest behind Kenya’s Mary Moraa, Hodgkinson determined: “That is never happening again.” 

In Paris, Hodgkinson moved into the lead after 300m and controlled the race from there. It wasn’t an easy win and she had to work to stay ahead, but she did stay ahead – she knew she could win and knew how to do it. Her time of 1:56.72 was a sensational win, especially considering the huge pressure of expectation that she was under. Ethiopia’s Tsige Duguma finished second, with Kenya’s Mary Moraa in third.

Hodgkinson becomes only the 10th woman to win an athletics gold for Team GB, and she’s the first since Jessica Ennis-Hill won heptathlon gold in London 2012. She’s the first GB track and field athlete to win a gold since 2016.

The three silvers of the last three years – and everything it meant to go from celebrating coming second to vowing never to come second again – have led to the greatest reward for any athlete, an Olympic gold medal. 

Keely Hodgkinson arrived in Paris as the bright star of Team GB, and she’ll leave as a golden global superstar. 

BEATRICE CHEBET WINS DRAMATIC WOMEN’S 5000m GOLD 

Ahead of Hodgkinson’s two golden laps in Paris, all eyes were on the women’s 5000m and their 12.5 turns around the track. 

The race had the potential to be one of the greatest women’s 5000m at the Olympics, and in the end it was one of the most dramatic.

In the race were Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon, Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay and Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet, respectively the world record holders in the 1500m, 5000m and 10,000m, plus the Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan, the reigning Olympic champion in the 5000m and 10,000m, and second fastest female marathoner of all time. 

But you wouldn’t have known that through halfway, or even through 4000m, in what was a cautious and steady race, which wound up anxiously waiting for someone to make their move. 

In the final laps the race got scrappy, with pushing and collisions, as Kipyegon and Tsegay almost tripped. That was enough for Kipyegon, double 1500m Olympic champion, and she decided that it was time to go, turning it into an 11.5 lap warm up for a one lap race. 

Kipyegon took off down the back straight and pushed into the lead, but Chebet went with her and never let her go, moving ahead on the final bend, and powering to the finish line. Chebet’s final lap of 57.8 seconds was enough for her to win the gold medal in 14:28.56 – despite the slow start, it was only two seconds off the Olympic record. Kipyegon finished second with Hassan in third. 

But that wasn’t the dramatic part of the race.

A review of the on-track scuffles between Kipyegon and Tsegay led to the Kenyan being disqualified, moving Hassan up to silver and Italy’s Nadia Battocletti into bronze. But then there was even more drama as that decision was overturned following a review by the Kenyan team, and the original result was reinstated.

Many of these women must now prepare to run again in other events. Hassan aims for success in the 10,000m and the marathon. Kipyegon will run in the 1500m. Tsegay, who finished a disappointing eighth in the 5000m, will take part in the 1500m and 10,000m. And Chebet runs in the event for which she’s the world record holder, the 10,000m.

ELSEWHERE TODAY

Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis won gold in the pole vault and set a thrilling new world record of 6.25. It was the ninth time he’d increased the world record and it made for an incredible end to the evening after the women’s 5000m and Keely’s 800m win. 

Earlier in the day…

After not making the men’s 100m final, GB’s Zharnel Hughes withdrew from the 200m competition with a tight hamstring. It hasn’t yet been decided whether he’ll take part in the 4x100m relay, which begins on Thursday. 

In the men’s 200m, Noah Lyles, with an even bigger swagger than usual now that he’s Olympic 100m champion, comfortably progressed into the semi final. 

In the women’s 200m, GB’s Daryll Neita and Dina Asher-Smith both made the final. They’ll line up alongside 100m champion Julien Alfred, and the fastest in the world over 200m this year, the US’s Gabby Thomas. 

Team GB’s Laviai Nielson and Amber Anning are into the women’s 400m semi final.

Tomorrow night we’ve got the men’s 1500m, which sees Josh Kerr up against Jakob Ingebrigtsen. There’s also the women’s 3000m steeplechase and the women’s 200m. Here’s the full running schedule of events to come this week at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. 

And if you want to hear more about what it’s like to be in Paris for the Olympics then Sarah, Andy and Rick are sending us a daily podcast. You can listen to The Running Channel podcast here! 

Photo Getty Images / Adam Pretty