Keely Hodgkinson's Historic Run in Lievin: British Athlete Breaks 24-Year-Old World Record

During the prestigious World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Lievin, an event occurred that will be permanently etched in athletics history. Briton Keely Hodgkinson, the current Olympic champion from Paris, achieved a phenomenal time of 1:54.87 in the 800 meters. This result is nearly a second better than the previous world record, which since March 3, 2002 belonged to Slovenian Jolanda Ceplak. The symbolic dimension of the entire situation is added by the fact that the previous record was set exactly on the day the British runner was born. Since the start of the 2026 season, Hodgkinson had signaled excellent form, which she confirmed a few days earlier during the national championships. The women's 800 meters indoor event has been considered one of the most difficult world records to break for over two decades. Jolanda Ceplak's result from Vienna (1:55.82) withstood numerous attempts by the most outstanding runners of the last twenty years.For Polish athletics, the competition in Lievin also brought reasons for satisfaction. Pia Skrzyszowska, the Polish leader in the world rankings for the 60 meters hurdles, took second place in the final competition with a time of 7.83 s. She was only beaten by world record holder Devynne Charlton. Meanwhile, in the men's 800 meters, Maciej Wyderka secured second place, emerging as one of the favorites for the upcoming championship after his successful debut last year in Tokyo. The qualifying standard for the World Indoor Championships in Toruń was met by Anna Wielgosz. The meeting also saw numerous national records, including Andrew Coscoran's result in the 1500 meters and Nadia Battocletti's record over the 3000 meters distance. „For the last few years, I've been saying I really wanted this. It was almost a strange feeling that the record was set on my birthday, and 24 years later I managed to break it.” — Keely HodgkinsonKeely Hodgkinson (2026): 1:54.87, Jolanda Ceplak (2002): 1:55.82, Stephanie Graf (2002): 1:55.85, Maria Mutola (1999): 1:57.060.95 s — by how much Hodgkinson improved the old world record [{"position": 2, "name": "Pia Skrzyszowska", "info": "60m hurdles", "result": "7.83 s"}, {"position": 2, "name": "Maciej Wyderka", "info": "800m", "result": "1:45.92"}, {"position": 1, "name": "Leonardo Fabbri", "info": "Shot put", "result": "22.37 m"}]