In her quest to continue to shock in the 400m, Keely Hodgkinson had announced she will be competing over one lap at the Rome Diamond League, however an all-star line up will be joining her.
Reading through the start list is like listing The Avengers, with many of Europe’s best 400m runners looking to assert themselves at the top ahead of the Birmingham 2026 European Athletics Championships.
Lining up on 4 June will be the last two world indoor champions, Lurdes Gloria Manuel and Amber Anning, the reigning European champion Natalia Bukowiecka, and reigning European U23 champion Henriette Jaeger.
We will see four of last years top five Europeans over 400m take to the track, with the only athlete missing being Femke Broeders-Bol, side-by-side as the 800m indoor world record holder looks to take her place amongst the best.
Hodgkinson showed during the indoor season that she is also a serious competitor over 400m; clocking 51.49 in March before going on to run the fastest split in the women’s 4x400m final at world indoors just moments after storming to 800m gold in a championship record time.
In that final she ran the last leg in 50.10, while on the first leg Klaver ran 51.16 and Bukowiecka ran 51.25 – so, there is a chance we could see Hodgkinson cause an upset.