Keely Hodgkinson Excited To End Year Of Injuries With Return To 800m

Keely Hogkinson admits she is excited and relieved to beryllium putting 375 days of tears, vexation and injuries down her erstwhile she races for nan first clip since winning nan Olympic 800m golden badge connected Saturday.

The 23-year-old acknowledges that she does not person overmuch clip to get her sharpness backmost earlier adjacent month’s World Championships successful Tokyo. But she struck an optimistic statement connected nan eve of nan Diamond League gathering successful Silesia, Poland, arsenic she readied herself to title again.

“It’s been a agelong clip – complete a twelvemonth since Paris,” she said. “It wasn’t my scheme to commencement this late. But I americium conscionable ace happy to get backmost connected nan commencement line. I’ve missed it a lot. This is what I train to do. So I can’t hold to get retired location and springiness it my absolute champion and let’s spot what happens.”

Hodgkinson has been battling hamstring issues, which flared soon aft nan Olympics and past returned connected nan eve of the Keely Klassic successful February, wherever she had been intending to break nan world indoor 800m record. She had hoped to return for past month’s London Diamond League, but had to hold until she was 100% fresh again.

“It’s been upsetting astatine times,” she said. “Missing London was hardest for maine because I conscionable wanted to beryllium location successful beforehand of my location crowd. Yes, it has been frustrating but it makes nan bully times sweeter and it makes it moreover amended to beryllium present now.”

The scheme is trial her fittingness successful Poland against a decent section that includes Oratile Nowe of Botswana, who posted nan season’s champion clip of 1:57.49, arsenic good arsenic Gabriela Gajanova, nan Slovakian who vanished runner-up to Hodgkinson successful nan 2024 European Championships. If each goes well, she will tally again 4 days later astatine nan Diamond League successful Lausanne.

“I’ve travel retired fresh to go, truthful I americium conscionable excited to put thing together. It’s been a frustrating year. Back successful June I was not capable to do thing and coming disconnected nan backmost of winning nan Olympics past twelvemonth it was not perfect astatine each that I conscionable couldn’t get connected nan commencement line.

“Tomorrow is conscionable a stepping chromatic connected nan measurement to Tokyo,” she added. “And I’m looking guardant to getting retired location and conscionable being competitory again.”