It was the latest in a string of outstanding performances from the Olympic champion, whose first appearance of the year brought a British indoor 800m record of 1:56.33 on February 14 before she then smashed the long-standing world record with 1:54.87 in Li\u00e9vin five days later.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Her preparations for what will be a first appearance at the World Indoor Championships appear to be going perfectly to plan \u2013 so much so that AW understands Hodgkinson is looking to be considered for the British 4x400m team in Toru\u0144, despite the relay final taking place just 45 minutes after the women\u2019s 800m final on the last day of competition in Poland.\u00a0<\/span><\/p> \u201cPut me on the second leg!\u201d she grinned after completing her first 400m in two years. \u201cI\u2019ve got to be happy with an outright PB. I did want [to run] slightly faster but it\u2019s so different to an 800m and it was good to step down [in distance].\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The longer event will of course take precedence in Poland as Hodgkinson rides this wave of momentum ahead of a championships she has been been unable to compete in thus far due to injury.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI really want to just bucket list this one off so that I can at least say I\u2019ve done one,\u201d said the European 800m champion, who will arrive as a heavy favourite to add another gold medal to her collection. It\u2019s a situation she is embracing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTo go in as a favourite is amazing,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m privileged and enjoying being in this position. I like living off the expectation.\u201d<\/span><\/p> That expectation is always high around an athlete who will celebrate her 24th birthday on Tuesday, but is especially so now after that world record-breaking performance in France. Hodgkinson was granted a two-day break in the immediate aftermath by her coach Trevor Painter, a chance to process everything that had happened \u2013 mentally as much as physically.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI did a run two days after that world record and I just thought: \u2018How the hell [did I do that]? I felt like \u2018s***\u2019!\u201d laughed Hodgkinson. \u201cBut I\u2019ve been through highs like that before and I know how to navigate it, come back again and still want more. It was good to step down [in distance] today. I think if I\u2019d have tried to run another 800m it would have been a little bit deflating compared to the last one!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cNow we\u2019ll be going into a top-up training block, then head to worlds and hopefully get the job done there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Hodgkinson was just one of a number of athletes from the Manchester-based M11 Track Club, led by Painter and his wife Jenny Meadows, competing in a series of invitational races that were incorporated into the schedule at the Scottish Athletics Combined Events Championships.\u00a0<\/span><\/p> Georgia Hunter Bell is a world silver medallist over 800m and, though she will be competing over 1500m in Poland, raced over the shorter distance in Glasgow.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Running her first indoor 800m since the BUCS Championships of 2015, she not surprisingly destroyed her previous best of 2:07.12, winning in 1:57.80 to break the Scottish all-comers' 800m record and move third in the UK all-time list on the track where she finished fourth at the 2024 World Indoor Championships.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The 32-year-old had been looking to break the European Indoor 1500m record at the Li\u00e9vin meeting but missed out on that mark and was left frustrated by the pacing, so she was happy to let some of that frustration out on the track.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI was gutted not to run the European record in Li\u00e9vin,\u201d she said. \u201cI was very much in shape for that, but the pacing was a mess, which was tough. I know where I\u2019m at and I\u2019ve worked really hard this winter, so I\u2019m excited for the World Indoors. I think it\u2019s going to be a really good 1500m. I feel like, every week, across the world there\u2019s someone different coming through.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Hunter Bell will have medals in mind and didn\u2019t want to elaborate too much on the recent news that her World Indoors 1500m bronze from last year will be upgraded to silver following the two-year ban of Ethiopia\u2019s Diribe Welteje<\/a>, who had finished second in Nanjing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI decided to park that,\" she said. \"It was race week and you don\u2019t want your emotions to be too up and down so I think I\u2019ll process it more next week. I\u2019m happy but there were mixed emotions as well.\u201d Meanwhile, Revee Walcott-Nolan bounced back from the disappointment of coming third in the 1500m at the British Indoor Championships with an indoor PB of 4:01.50 \u2013 the fourth-fastest ever by a Briton \u2013 while Jack Higgins ducked under the World Indoors qualifying standard in the men's race with 3:35.60. Matthew McKenna improved his own British under-20 800m record with a run of 1:47.19.<\/p>\n The British Indoor Combined Events titles were also decided in Glasgow, with Sammy Ball producing a PB of 5819 to win men's heptathlon gold from Callum Newby's Scottish record of 5731. Thea Brown took the honours in\u00a0 the women's pentathlon with a winning score of 4320.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/athleticsweekly.com\/wp-content\/smush-webp\/2026\/03\/Keely-invitational-2-750x443.jpg.webp\")
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