Keely Hodgkinson won the first Athletics Gold Medal for Great Britain at Paris 2024 with a superb victory in the 800 metres. Hodgkinson, 22 won in a time of 1:56.72 with Ethiopia’s Tsige Duguma taking silver and Kenyan Mary Moraa claiming the bronze.
Keely Hodgkinson became the first British athlete to win a Track and Field Olympic Gold Medal since Sir Mo Farah won the 5,000 metres in Rio 2016 and the first female athlete since Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill won the 2012 Heptathlon title.
Speaking after the race, Hodgkinson said: “I have worked really hard for the last year and I think you can see how much it meant to me when I crossed the line. I can’t believe I have finally done it!
“To do it here, where better? The audience was incredible. It felt like a home crowd to me in itself in Paris, so yes I am super, super happy.”
She said that her tactics for the race were to be up near the front, saying she felt that she could have been a bit quicker at the bell though stating that with the semis and finals being run on back-to-back days, she felt everyone was going to be a bit tired.
“I just wanted to save a bit for the last hundred. I trusted in myself. I could feel Mary [Moraa] pushing me on the back straight but… Composure. And we got to the line first this time so I’m super happy.”
She also became the third British woman to win the 800-metre title following Ann Packer in 1964 and Dame Kelly Holmes in 2004.
After initially trailing Duguma in the early stages, Hodgkinson seized the lead at 300 metres and led at the end of the first lap with both Duguma and Moraa in close pursuit.
Moraa got onto the shoulder of Hodgkinson down the back straight and threatened to take the lead as the pair approached the final 100 metres.
But it was from there that Hodgkinson showed her class pulling away from Moraa who was passed by a fast-finishing Duguma to claim her first global title after winning silver in Tokyo behind Amercian Athing Mu as well as a silver medal in both World Championships in 2022 and 2023.
Mu was not in the field after falling in the US Trials in June and thus not making the team.
Keely Hodgkinson’s Gold was the 12th Gold Medal won by Great Britain at the Games following victory in the Women’s Team Sprint in Cycling earlier in the day.