Athletics: Keely Hodgkinson confirms fitness ahead of 2026 Prefontaine Classic after UK Championships scare – “I wasn’t willing to risk it”
Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson has confirmed she is fully fit ahead of the 2026 Prefontaine Classic, after her emotional withdrawal from the women’s 400m at the UK Athletics Championships (21 June).
Hodgkinson revealed why she stepped away from the start line moments before the final in Birmingham, during a pre-race press conference in Eugene, Orgeon, on Friday (3 July), explaining the decision was purely precautionary.
“I felt a little tightness in my leg, and given my history of my hamstrings last year, I just wasn’t willing to risk it. But I’m all good.”
She added that she completed a training session later that week without any issues.
“It was completely fine.”
The Paris 2024 gold medallist admitted last year’s injury setback, where she suffered a hamstring tear causing her to miss several Diamond League events, also influenced her decision.
“I think when you’re an athlete and you suffer bad injuries, you can underestimate a little bit of the trauma it leaves in your head,” she said.
“Doing the 400 for me, for my body, it’s always been a bit of a risk. It’s something I like to do. It’s fun. But doing those back-to-back days, my mind was here [gesturing to her hamstring] and not here [gesturing forward],” she added. “I didn’t feel like I was going to put together my best.”
Of making the dramatic decision at the starting line, Hodgkinson quipped: “That kind of explains my life sometimes.”
With her attention fully on Saturday’s (4 July) women’s 800m at the 2026 Prefontaine Classic, she’ll face reigning world champion Kenya’s Lilian Odira in a rematch of the 2025 World Athletics Championships, where Odira claimed gold.
The pursuit of Jarmila Kratochvílová’s 1983 world record of 1:53.28 will also continue at Hayward Field, but without Switzerland’s Audrey Werro, who finished first at the Paris Diamond League (28 June) in 1:53.80, just .52 seconds off the record.
