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Keely Hodgkinson sets new 800m British record at Paris Diamond League meeting

Keely Hodgkinson lowered her personal best and British record with a brilliant performance in the 800 metres at the Diamond League meeting in Paris.

Hodgkinson followed the pacemaker before striking for home 300m from the line, eventually clocking a time of one minute 55.77 seconds, taking 0.11secs off her previous best set in winning Olympic silver in Tokyo.

“I am a little bit shocked that I ran so fast,” the 21-year-old said. “Paris next year, I will definitely be back.

“The weather was really nice, so warm. I had heard good things about the track. With this full stadium and the great crowd, it was amazing. I am so happy.

“Now the aim is to stay healthy, we still have to see, I want to keep running fast. The focus is on the summer, on Budapest (the World Championships).

“What is next with such a fast time early in the season? Well, I do not know. Hopefully I will run even faster.”

Hodgkinson’s record-breaking run came just half an hour after Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen smashed the two-mile world record by more than four seconds.

Ingebrigtsen left the field trailing in his wake as he recorded a time of seven minutes, 54.10 seconds.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen
Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen gestures after setting a new world record over two miles in the Diamond League meeting in Paris (Michel Euler/AP)

The previous mark was set by Daniel Komen in 1997, three years before Olympic 1,500 metre champion Ingebrigtsen was born.

Records continued to tumble as Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon set a new world’s best for the 5,000m, just a week after doing the same in the 1,500m in Florence.

Kipyegon produced a blistering last lap to pull away from Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey and clock a time of 14:05.20, taking almost a second and a half off Gidey’s previous mark.

The ideal conditions helped produce another world record in the penultimate event of the evening, Ethiopia’s Lamecha Girma taking more than a second off the previous mark with a time of 7:52.11 in the men’s 3,000m steeplechase.