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Keely Hodgkinson (centre) will not be fast-tracked despite her success in Torun (Darko Vojinovic/AP)
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British Athletics chief Christian Malcolm has urged his team’s stars to heed the example of Keely Hodgkinson and show “no fear” as they build towards the delayed Olympics in Tokyo later this year.
The 19-year-old capped her senior international debut by storming to victory in the women’s 800 metres at the European Indoor Championships in Torun at the weekend.
Keely Hodgkinson is a special talent but might be cautious over trying to make the Tokyo Olympics
British Athletics head coach Christian Malcolm was full of praise for teenager after dominant showing at the European Indoor Championships
9 March 2021 • 7:00am
It has taken Keely Hodgkinson little more than five weeks to catapult herself from promising junior to international recognition.
Fresh from becoming the first British woman to break a world under-20 record since Zola Budd 36 years ago, Hodgkinson on Sunday became Britain’s youngest European indoor champion for more than 50 years with a dominant front-running display to win 800 metres gold just four days after her 19th birthday.
Belgian athlete Eline Berings claimed she was forced to withdraw from
the semi-finals of the 60-metre hurdles at the European Athletics
Indoor Championships for "no reason" following a false-positive
COVID-19 test result.
Keely Hodgkinson storms to 800m gold at European Indoor Champs
The 19-year-old took the title in a brilliant display of front-running PressFocus/MB MediaGetty Images
Four days after her 19th birthday, Great Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson claimed gold in the 800m at the European Indoor Championships in Torun, Poland.
Hodgkinson surged to the front just 200m into the race and held off her more experienced rivals to cross the line in two minutes 3.88 seconds, with fellow Britons Ellie Baker and Isabelle Boffey finishing fourth and sixth, respectively. She is the second-youngest British athlete to win a gold at the Indoors, after Marilyn Neufville, who was 17 when she won gold in the 400m in 1970.