British Indoor 800m record for Keely Hodgkinson at the Müller Indoor Grand Prix
A pulsating Muller Indoor Grand Prix came to a record-breaking end with Keely Hodgkinson’s outstanding performance over 4 indoor laps at Birmingham.
The fans turned out in force to see this showpiece, with many athletes testing their fitness, preparing for next weekend’s UK Athletics Indoor Championships and also looking to secure World Indoor Championships qualifying standards.
The full house at the Utilita Arena Birmingham roared virtually every step of Keely Hodgkinson’s 800m victory, as the Olympic silver medallist began her competitive year with a run of the highest quality in what was the final track event of the meeting.
Seeing off a top-class field, 19-year-old Hodgkinson (handicap -1.5) stormed to a time 1:57.20 – not only a British indoor record but also the fastest indoor 800m performance by a woman in 20 years. If this is a measure of how she intends to go on in 2022, it will be a special year indeed for the woman who only celebrates her 20th birthday in March.
Her margin of victory was over two seconds, with Australian Catriona Bisset also clocking a national record (1:59.46) while Jamaican Natoye Goule, who had been the world leader going into this event, ran 1:59.85. Adelle Tracey (handicap -1.2) clocked 2:01.52 for fifth, with Jenny Selman (handicap -1.6) sixth in 2:01.57.
“I wrote down the aims for this year and one of them was a British indoor record,’ grinned Hodgkinson. “I was 100 per cent in shape for this record and I just wanted to go for it and there were some good girls in that race.
“I’ve never run in front of a British crowd this big and it was such a comfortable environment.”
There was more home success for the crowd to celebrate as local athlete Isabelle Boffey (handicap -0.8) produced an excellent win in the women’s 1000m.
Jemma Reekie (handicap -1.4), the Olympic 800m fourth placer, was firmly at the head of affairs for much of the race but after some particularly sharp early pacing, the lactic kicked in and she was caught by the chasing pack. Boffey, the European U23 800m champion, seized her chance to win in a PB of 2:38.25, just ahead of Pole Angelika Cichoka’s PB of 2:38.57. German Katharina Trost was third in 2:38.62, while Reekie finished sixth in 2:39.74.
There had been much anticipation surrounding the men’s 1500m, with Peter Elliott’s British indoor record of 3:34.20 expected to come under threat. The 1990 mark survived, though, with the first Briton over the line being George Mills (handicap -5.3), who clocked a significant PB of 3:36.03 in fourth. Piers Copeland (handicap -5.6) also clocked an indoor PB of 3:36.12 for fifth in a race won by Kenyan Abel Kipsang in 3:34.57.
In the women’s 1500m race, there were PBs and World Indoor Championships qualifying marks for Amy-Eloise Markovc (handicap -2.2) and Erin Wallace (handicap -0.9) of 4:08.68 and 4:08.90 in fourth and fifth place respectively.
In the men’s 800m, Elliot Giles (handicap -6.1) was just denied victory by Collins Kipruto, the Kenyan clocking 1:45.39 to edge the Briton (1:45.42). Guy Learmonth (handicap -5.3) was fourth in 1:46.46, a time which is also a World Indoors qualifier.
Müller Indoor Grand Prix Results here
Full Athletics report from British athletics here.
UK runbritain rankings for endurance events and age groups
Other results from the weekend are on the following links: