Keely Hodgkinson Speaks About The World Record Chase At London Diamond League After A Hard Summer

Coming off an indoor world record of 1:54.87 in February, Keely Hodgkinson entered the 2026 outdoor season with a clear plan: build toward a world record attempt at the London Diamond League on July 19, likely the culmination of her chase for Jarmila Kratochvilova's 1:53.28 from 1983. What actually happened: she opened in Stockholm and ran a personal best of 1:54.33 — and lost to Audrey Werro, who broke the 43-year barrier and ran 1:53.98. Two weeks later, she withdrew from the British championships 400m after a twinge in warm-ups. A week before the Pre Classic, she fell in practice and badly scraped both knees. She raced anyway and ran 1:56.73 for second behind Lilian Odira. And then came London. In this conversation, we sit down with Keely to talk through what the last six weeks have actually been like, how the knees have been recovering, how she's processing the Werro and Femke Bol emergence and where the world record chase actually stands.