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Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson made a return to winning ways at the London Diamond League after what she admitted had been “a tough couple of weeks”.<\/b><\/p>\n
Hodgkinson, 24, had set her sights on breaking the women’s 800m world record – which has stood for 43 years – in London, where on Saturday fellow Briton Josh Kerr ran the fastest mile in history.<\/p>\n
That ambition followed a superb indoor campaign during which she captured her first world indoor title and the 24-year women’s indoor 800m world record.<\/p>\n
But her outdoor season has not begun as smoothly, with back-to-back second-place finishes at Diamond League events in Stockholm and Eugene – despite improving her British record at the former, and suffering a bad fall in the lead up to the latter.<\/p>\n
Prioritising victory on home soil following those experiences, in front of a sellout crowd of 60,000 inside London Stadium, Hodgkinson controlled the race throughout and finished strongly to hold off Dutch athlete Femke Broeders-Bol in a time of one minute 56.21 seconds.<\/p>\n
“Mixed emotions – but I think I’m going to take the positives that it’s been a tough couple of weeks, not everything always your way and goes to plan,” Hodgkinson told BBC Sport.<\/p>\n
“The only reason I came here today was because I wanted to run in front of a home crowd, so I’m happy to get that out the way, go to the European Championships next and we just build on from here.”<\/p>\n
Reflecting on her testing start to the outdoor season, she added: “It’s a life skill you can take. Life is sometimes unfair and doesn’t go the way you want or how you imagined it.<\/p>\n
“It’s how you deal with it. I still dream big but for now, I’m just going to stay in the present.”<\/p>\n
Kerr, speaking alongside Hodgkinson after breaking Hicham El Guerrouj’s 27-year mile record, said his British team-mate’s ability to handle the pressure of competing around the world and then win in front of her home crowd was “incredible”.<\/p>\n
“Even if you’re not happy with today – I don’t know how – to be able to do that at your age and win consistently – we are so lucky to have athletes consistently showing up, and hopefully we can inspire the next generation to do the same,” Kerr said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n