Keely is looking ahead to 2026
Keely Hodgkinson is listed to run the 400m at the Novuna UK Championships this coming weekend. This does not mean that she is seeking selection for the European Championships in the one-lap event. The selection criteria are the first two athletes in the trials, plus a third athlete at the selectors’ discretion. Unless they have a medical exemption, athletes are required to run in the trials but not necessarily in the event in which they are seeking selection.
In a UK Athletics press point earlier this month, Keely explained her thinking: “I’ve always considered myself a 400/800 type athlete. I don’t think I’ve shown all my potential in the 400 yet. I got a bit of a glimpse of what I could do indoors, so I’m really excited to bring that outdoors. I am still very much learning the event, still not quite sure how to run it, so it’s going to be a fun little day. Hopefully, bringing down my 400 PR. It’s just going to make that first lap at 800 feel nice. I think it will give us some confidence for the 800”.
Most 800m athletes also run 1500s, but Keely has not run a 1500 since 2018, when she was 16. Her PR is 4:30 from 2017. However, she did make one interesting admission to the GB track and field writers: “I was thinking about it the other day, and I was like, wouldn’t it be really cool if I could do like sub-50 or sub-2 and a sub-4 in my career. I think that would be a really nice little overall aim to have. I think sub-50 is harder than sub-4, but it’s a nice little challenge, and I’m just looking forward to it and watching everything come together”.
It is not the first time Keely has run 400 at trials. At the 2022 Indoor trials, she ran three 400s in two days with a best of 52.42. In 2023, she took bronze at the European U23S in 51.76 as part of her preparation for the World Championships in Budapest, where she took silver in the 800. Earlier this month, she ran a PR in the Golden Gala in Rome of 51.14, but in a race of 400 specialists, she was well down the field. She was happy with the race, suggesting that “the lineup in Rome was crazy” and that she was “really throwing myself in the deep end there. But I think it’s quite good to put myself in a position where, on paper, I’m going in slowest and to go up against girls that have been doing this event and are world finalists and medalists and Olympic medalists”.
In her own event, the 800, she has already set an indoor world record this year, won the World Indoors, and set a new GB outdoor record, albeit finishing second to Audrey Werro in the latter case.
Keely said that her summer was still being finalized, but she was definitely planning to compete in the European Championships in Birmingham. “It will be cool to be able to defend the title at home. I’ve got four European titles now, 2 indoors and two outdoors. Again, if I were to think about little goals in the back of my mind, I think Laura Muir has the most European titles, and I would love to get near that and break that. I think she’s got something like seven, which is crazy. So yeah, I need to keep competing to do that because Europeans are every two years, and to have it on home soil again is an opportunity to run in front of the UK crowd. I can’t wait”. While not yet decided, she said that with the Europeans firmly in her plans, it was unlikely she would run at the Commonwealth Games.
She will run in the London Diamond League or the Novuna London Athletics Meet, to give it its full title, in the 800. She has talked about trying to break the outdoor world record. Could the two coincide? “Yeah, obviously, I would love to have that happen on home soil. And like I have said, I get really excited about London. There’s just a whole crowd and everything. I think as a British person competing there, it’s just so much fun. And it’s definitely the main thing I’m looking forward to on the calendar this year. Might be about all of the world records”.
After two seasons during which she has had to manage injuries, Keely is fit and well in 2026. It could prove to be an exciting summer for her and those of us who are able to watch her.
