European champion not totally satisfied by her indoor 800m mark, while Laura Muir and Gudaf Tsegay give it their all but are beaten by the clock in Birmingham

It tells you a lot about Keely Hodgkinson and the standards she sets for her herself that breaking a British record just doesn’t feel like it’s enough.

The Olympic, world and Commonwealth silver medallist was untouchable as she won the World Athletics Indoor Tour 800m crown with a front-running victory at the Final in Birmingham. Her winning time of 1:57.18 shaved vital fractions off the national mark of 1:57.20 she had set at the Utilita Arena this time last year, but still the 20-year-old’s first reaction was not one of satisfaction.

Breaking Jolanda Ceplak’s world record of 1:55.82, set on the very day Hodgkinson was born 21 years ago, was not necessarily on the cards, but the lasting impression the Briton left was one of wanting to have at least put it under threat.

“I’ve had time to calm down. It’s a British record so I can’t complain but you know when you are capable of so much more,” said the European champion indoors and out. “I felt I was on pace but in the last 50 metres it got away from me.

“When you set your goals high, you want to achieve them. It was tough to get the world record, but I’ll keep trying and I’ll keep coming back to give it a go.”

That was the third 800m race of the indoor season for Hodgkinson. She has run them all in 1:57. Her next will come at the European Indoor Championships in Istanbul, where she is defending champion and a clear favourite to add another gold.

“I have been really consistent and I’ve been chopping my times down. There’s always the next thing in sport,” she said after a race in which she had gone through the halfway split in 56.94, with Australian Catriona Bisset coming second in 1:59.83 and the ever improving Issy Boffey following up her British Indoor Championships win from a week ago by lowering her PB to 2:00.25.

“For me now, it’s straight into the Europeans and that’s my focus now.”

The same can be said for Laura Muir, who had also arrived in Birmingham with record-breaking ambitions. The Scot’s sights were set on Maria Mutola’s world indoor 1000m mark of 2:30.94 from 1999.

The buoyant Birmingham crowd did their best to will her on but, as Muir put it, this is the “nastiest” of distances and she began to fall off the pace with around 400m to go, ultimately clocking a time 2:34.53. There was a national record of 2:35.35 for Romania’s Claudia Mihaela Bobocea in second, while Poland’s Sofia Ennaoui clocked 2:35.69 for third.

Muir is famous for being able to suffer and she knew she would have to embrace the pain to achieve this particular aim. To break the record, there was no choice but to go out hard. She dug deep but an opening 600m of 1:29.36 took its toll.

“I’m really appreciative of the fact that I got the opportunity to go for it,” said the woman who set the British record for the distance of 2:31.93 in Birmingham two years ago.

“Not very many people get the opportunity to go for one, let alone on UK soil, so I’m really thankful to the meet for setting this up for me. [Pacemaker] Jenny Selman was amazing. She was spot on pace wise but we knew we had to go fast through that first half and it’s whether that hits a bit too soon or not. Unfortunately, it hit a bit too soon, but I was going go for it regardless. I feel like I’m in the shape to run that sort of time but it’s getting that perfect and it’s so hard to get right.”

Muir’s focus now turns to Istanbul and the pursuit of what would be a fifth European Indoor title.

“I’m going for the gold [again],” she added. “It’s the only colour I’ve won at the Europeans and I want to keep that going.”

The first pre-planned record attempt of the day came in the women’s 3000m, where Gudaf Tsegay came agonisingly close to breaking a mark which had stood for 19 years.

Despite turning on the after burners with around 150m to go to stay on schedule, the Ethiopian world 5000m champion hit the line in 8:16.69, just shy of the run of 8:16.60 produced by her compatriot Genzebe Dibaba in 1994. It was the second-fastest time in history and a meeting record. It is also the second time in 2023 that Tsegay has recorded the second-fastest mark ever behind Dibaba, having run 4:16.16 for the mile in Toruń.

Another Ethiopian, Mizan Alem, was second – almost 15 seconds behind – in 8:31.20, while Konstanze Klosterhalfen, the European 5000m champion who had begun the contest going in search of the continental record, came home in third with 8:35.14.

Having reached 1000m in 2:43.41 and been paced through to the 1600m mark, Tsegay had to make the hard push for home all by herself. She seemed to be clinging on to the tail of the pacing lights when reaching 2000m in 5:31.06.

For a moment it looked like she had terminally fallen off the pace but her late effort brought the target back into view. The saying goes that elite sport comes down to fine margins. Tsegay would attest to that.

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