Her competition in Munich might have been comparatively weaker than the assignments of recent weeks, but after a host of 800 metres silvers Keely Hodgkinson was simply elated to stand on top of an international outdoor podium for the first time in her career. “I refused to walk away today without gold,” she stated afterwards.
Hodgkinson’s was one of two golds won on another strong evening for Britain at the Olympiastadion, with the men’s 4x400m team also triumphing, before Lizzie Bird (3,000m steeplechase) and the women’s 4x400m quartet took bronze.
There is every reason to believe Hodgkinson will become British athletics’ biggest star over the coming years – if she is not already – and a household name across the country.
Compiling Olympic, world and Commonwealth medals aged 20 is the hallmark of someone abnormally precocious. So is her reaction to not coming first, which included a blunt insistence that she “did not deserve” to celebrate after she was edged out of world glory last month, and was “fuming” at failing to win a home Commonwealth title.
So while this European 800m final might have lacked her strongest competitors, it will mean a lot to leave Germany as a champion.
“I definitely needed mentally picking up after the Commonwealths,” said Hodgkinson. “I was disappointed there. But overall, I’ve got two silvers and a gold [this summer], so I really can’t complain. I’m just happy to finally be on top of the podium.”
That Hodgkinson made this victory look so astoundingly simple is testament to her extraordinary prowess. Every woman in Saturday night’s final had run below two minutes this summer, although Hodgkinson was the sole athlete to have made last month’s world final, and British team-mates Jemma Reekie and Alex Bell the only others who raced in last year’s Olympic final.
Nonetheless, her triumph was achieved with an astounding lack of fuss. At no point was there a thought that anyone other than Hodgkinson might win.
Having sat contentedly in the middle of the pack for the opening lap, she only decided to start making headway entering the back straight for the second time, steadily edging her way into third place and then hitting the front with 200m remaining.
When she powered away from her rivals round the final bend she seemed not to have a care in the world. Where others were huffing, puffing and failing to make any headway, Hodgkinson looked serene.
Her victory came in one minute 59.04 seconds – her slowest outside of heats all year – with France’s Renelle Lamote taking silver in 1-59.49. Anna Wielgosz, of Poland, claimed bronze, as Reekie faded from second to fifth in the closing stages.
“It was really nice,” said Hodgkinson. “Ten metres from the line I looked up just to make sure that I had secured the win.
“It’s extra special because my parents are here. I went and hugged them after but they ruined my hair so I was like: ‘Get off me.’ It’s nice to share that moment with them. They don’t get to see me too often. I’m going to bed because I’m so tired, but they will be on the wine for me tonight.”
With Europe defeated, there are now only two more frontiers to conquer in the form of fellow 20-year-old Athing Mu, of the United States, and Kenya’s Mary Moraa, 22 – the only two women to have beaten her at major championships over the past year.
Mu remains the standard she aspires to. At the Olympics, the gap between them was 0.67sec, but the finer margin from last month’s World Championships still weighs heavy.
“I was 0.08sec away from being the world champion so that will play on my mind for the next year,” said Hodgkinson. Fuel to stoke the fire further.
Britain’s 4x400m men completed an almighty turnaround to regain a title they last won in 2014. Having been knocked out in the heats at last year’s Olympics, they experienced the embarrassment of not even competing at the World Championships last month after failing to qualify among the top 16 teams.
Remarkably, just a few weeks later they won European gold, with individual 400m champion Matthew Hudson-Smith earning an early lead that Charlie Dobson, Lewis Davey and Alex Haydock-Wilson maintained to triumph in 2-59.35, ahead of Belgium.
“This is great,” said Hudson-Smith. “I have a great team of boys around me, we have a great team atmosphere, and came here to get gold – and that is exactly what we did. We are back and ready to take on the world.”
Their female counterparts Victoria Ohuruogu, Ama Pipi, Jodie Williams and Nicole Yeargin clocked the second-fastest British time in history behind the national record set in 2007, but it was only good enough for bronze behind winners Netherlands and silver medalists Poland.
A fortnight after winning the first major medal of her career with Commonwealth 3,000m steeplechase silver, Bird added European bronze as Albania’s Luiza Gega won gold.
