Great Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson smashed the world indoor 800m record by almost one second with a phenomenal 1:54.87 at the Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais Trophee EDF in Lievin, a World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting, on Thursday (19) evening.
The reigning Olympic and European champion became the first athlete to break the 1:55-barrier indoors, shattering the long-standing world indoor record of 1:55.82 set by Slovenia’s Jolanda Ceplak at the 2002 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Vienna on the same day Hodgkinson was born.
While nothing is guaranteed in sport, the probability of a world indoor record had increased significantly after Hodgkinson clocked a solo 1:56.33 - the third fastest time in history indoors - on her season’s debut in the heats at the UK Indoor Championships in Birmingham on Saturday without the assistance of either pacemakers or wave-lights.
By contrast, Hodgkinson enjoyed some early assistance from the Polish pacemaker Anna Gryc who reached the 400m in 55.58 with Hodgkinson following in her slipstream through in 56.01, faster than her halfway split of 56.28 in Birmingham on Saturday.
After the pacemaker peeled away on the third lap, Hodgkinson clung onto the wave-lights in pursuit of the world indoor record which she has longed to break. As the bell chimed as the Brit reached the 600m point, Hodgkinson was one-and-a-half seconds faster than Ceplak - 1:25.06 to 1:26.68 - when she broke the world record in 2002.
Hodgkinson only needed a last lap of 30.75 to consign Ceplak’s world indoor record to the history books but the 23-year-old still had the strength to cover the last lap in under 30 seconds at 29.81 to stop the clock at a barrier-breaking 1:54.87 to become the first athlete in history to run inside 1:55 for the 800m indoors.
"Thank god!" said Hodgkinson, the relief palpable in her brief on-track interview. "That was really fun. I've been looking forward to this for a few weeks now."
This was the first world record of Hodgkinson’s gleaming career although she did break the world indoor 600m best with 1:23.41 in Manchester in 2023. She also becomes the first Brit to set a world record in the women’s 800m in more than 60 years after Ann Packer won the 1964 Olympic title in Tokyo in 2:01.1.
Hodgkinson’s next big target is the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Torun from 20-22 March which takes place on the same track where she won her first major senior title at the 2021 European Athletics Indoor Championships at the age of 19.
And her attention will then turn to the summer season culminating with the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham from 10-16 August when Hodgkinson will be aiming for a third successive title in the 800m.
Hodgkinson's 100m split times: 100m 13.52, 200m 26.80, 300m 41.30, 400m 56.01, 500m 1:10.55, 600m 1:25.06, 700m 1:39.67
World indoor all-time 800m list
1:54.87 - Keely Hodgkinson (GBR) 2026
1:55.82 - Jolanda Ceplak (SLO) 2002
1:55.85 - Stefanie Graf (AUT) 2002
1:56.40 - Christine Wachtel (GDR) 1988
1:56.90 - Ludmila Formanova (CZE) 1999
1:57.06 - Maria Mutola (MOZ) 1999
1:57.23 - Inna Yevseyeva (UKR) 1992
1:57.27 - Audrey Werro (SUI) 2026
1:57.43 - Isabelle Boffey (GBR) 2026
1:57.47 - Natalya Tsyganova (RUS) 1999
World indoor 800m record progression
1:58.4h - Olga Vakrusheva (URS) 1980
1:58.42 - Sigrun Wodars (GDR) 1987
1:57.64 - Christine Wachtel (GDR) 1988
1:56.40 - Christine Wachtel (GDR) 1988
1:55.82 - Jolanda Ceplak (SLO) 2002
1:54.87 - Keely Hodgkinson (GBR) 2026
Hodgkinson's 10 fastest 800m times
1:54.61 - London 2024
1:54.74 - Silesia 2025
1:54.87i - Lievin 2026
1:54.91 - Tokyo (World Championships) 2025
1:55.19 - Eugene 2023
1:55.69 - Lausanne 2025
1:55.77 - Paris 2023
1:55.78 - Eugene 2024
1:55.88 - Tokyo (Olympic Games) 2021
1:56.33i - Birmingham 2026
Photo courtesy of James Rhodes
