Keely Hodgkinson withdraws from 400m final in tears

Keely Hodgkinson’s camp moved swiftly to play down concerns after the Olympic 800m champion withdrew from the 400m start line in tears just seconds before she was due to race at the UK Athletics Championships on Sunday.

Using the weekend in Birmingham as a speedwork opportunity, Hodgkinson emerged for the 400 metres final and began the usual pre-race strides in her lane, only to stop, grimace and slowly make her way to the side of the track. After a few seconds of thought, she crouched down and started to cry before she was led into the bowels of the stadium, with the race going ahead in her absence.

She later provided a statement saying: “I wasn’t feeling 100% standing on the start line, so I made the tough decision to step away and not race. I didn’t want to risk anything ahead of this summer.”

Her camp insisted the withdrawal was precautionary ahead of an attempt at the longstanding 800m world record later this summer. They suggested the problem was muscle tightness, which had emerged at the end of her warm-up just before Sunday’s race.

Hodgkinson has recent experience of serious injury after missing much of the 2025 season when tearing her hamstring in February of that year. She belatedly returned to action in mid-August, but could only win bronze at the World Championships.

Minutes before her withdrawal, Hodgkinson’s training partner Georgia Hunter Bell had run a championship record 1:55.93 seconds to claim the 800m title.

“I’ve only just found out,” said Hunter Bell, when asked about Hodgkinson. “I’m not sure what’s up because she was warming up really well. We were warming up together and she was looking amazing. She knows she’s in really good shape.”

Hodgkinson has been open about hoping to break Jarmila Kratochvilová’s 43-year-old 800m world record of 1:53.28 this summer. She lowered her own national record in her only 800m outing earlier this month, running 1:54.33 though losing to Audrey Werro in Stockholm, and had hoped to sharpen up her speed in Birmingham this weekend.

She had qualified fifth fastest for Sunday’s 400m final when clocking 51.62 a day earlier. In her absence, British record holder and former world indoor champion Amber Anning claimed gold in a championship record 50.16.