British Olympic champion Kelly Hodgkinson set a new world record in the 800m indoor race on Thursday in Leven (northern France), achieving a time of 1 minute, 54 seconds and 87 hundredths of a second. With this achievement, the heroine broke the record held by Slovenian Yolanda Ceplac with a time of 1 minute, 55 seconds and 82 hundredths of a second, and she achieved it on the day of the birth of the new heroine, Kelly, in March 2002.

Published on: 02/20/2026 - 16:32

British Olympic champion Kelly Hodgkinson, on Thursday in Leven (northern France), broke the world record for the 800-meter indoor race, achieving a time of 1 minute, 54 seconds and 87 hundredths of a second. With this achievement, the heroine broke the record of Slovenian Yolanda Ceplac with a time of 1 minute, 55 seconds and 82 hundredths of a second. This means that she exceeded the number that was set on the day she was born in March 2002, by about a full second.

“It seems natural that this number will be mine,” Hodgkinson said Wednesday in a press conference, adding, “I do not want to set limits on the time I can achieve.”

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Last Saturday, the runner recorded a time of 1 minute, 56 seconds and 33 hundredths of a second, which is the third best time in history, during the British Athletics Championship qualifiers.

The runner was aiming to break this record last winter, but was forced to give up due to a knee injury. Then, at the beginning of the summer, she suffered injuries to her back muscles, which forced her to settle for a bronze medal at the World Championships in Tokyo in September.

Before the British Championships, Hodgkinson had not raced indoors in about three years.

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She said on Wednesday that she will test herself at a distance of 400 meters after the meeting with Levan, hoping that she will then be able to participate in her first indoor world championship, in mid-March in Toruń, Poland.

France 24/AFP

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