Keely Hodgkinson dominated the final race of her 2026 season by winning the 800m at Athlos in London as she debuted a new full-length, hooded speed suit. Hodgkinson has been troubled by illness and injury over the last two months, revealing this week that an MRI scan has uncovered an “abnormality” in her hamstring. The 24-year-old has been usurped by Switzerland’s Audrey Werro in the women’s 800m this year – an event which has become unmissable as Werro, Hodkinson and Netherlands’ Femke Broeders-Bol are all pushing each other towards the world record of 1:53.28 which has stood for 43 years. Werro and Bol were not at the StoneX Stadium in London on Friday, so Hodgkinson cruised to victory in a time of 1:56.40 to defend her Athlos crown.
Athlos is an all-women’s event which was launched last year by Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian, who is the husband of 23-time tennis Grand Slam champion Serena Williams. “I’m honoured they let me put this on show. I was a little nervous, walking out. The shades helped me just block out the noise, but it was really fun and it’s something I’ll remember forever,” said Hodgkinson.
“Honestly this has been like a year in the making with all the adjustments and fittings. It was a really fun process with the Nike innovation team. I think it’s a mixture of fashion, speed and science all coming together, for maybe the future of athletics potentially. “It was a real honour for them to choose me to put this out first.
We weren’t sure when we were going to wear it, but in hindsight an all-women’s event, which is all about the glitz and glamour and putting eyes on women, a bit of a moment was the perfect way to finish the season. So it’s really exciting.” Hodgkinson’s outfit reminded people of Australian Cathy Freeman who won the women’s 400m at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. She believes the suit is legal and revealed she trained in it in South Africa where the temperatures approached 40C. “The science was like technically with the air drag you’re slower with your hair out, but I was like, ‘that’s a non-negotiable.
My hair is staying out’. I’m very much ‘look good, feel good’ [and that] mental and physical balance,” she said. Asked if she would wear the suit at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, Hodgkinson said: “We might know some things that people don’t! “It was a test out there.
This is not something we haven’t seen before. Like Cathy Freeman and some other athletes from a while ago did something like this, and this is the updated new version, with the new technology. “She [Freeman] was before I was born, but I have seen the race and photos. It was really cool to draw inspiration from the past and make it your own as well.
The style was a big thing for me. “I wanted to be comfortable but I wanted to feel a little bit sexy, the back’s open and that makes it feel really cool so I’m not hot at all. It feels like I’m wearing nothing to be honest.” Having broken the women’s 800m indoor world record in February, Hodgkinson was hoping to break the outdoor record set by Czechoslovakia’s Jarmila Kratochvilova in 1983. The record is controversial as it came at a time when there were claims the country had a doping regime, something Kratochvilova has denied.
Hodgkinson has been overtaken in the pecking order this year by Swiss star Werro who beat Hodgkinson at the European Championships and Ultimate Championships. She missed the last two Diamond League events and revealed she suffered a hamstring tear at the European Championships in Birmingham, but continued to run. “My body is quite literally built differently. Where most people have one tendon, mine is split – I have two – and we’re trying to figure out if it’s a strength or a weakness,” said Hodgkinson.
“So when one of them tore, I still had another one because it’s split. In Birmingham, it didn’t affect me during the race, but I could feel something wasn’t quite right. “It’s a weird one. You can still run on them.
I haven’t missed any training the last three weeks. But I’ve just had to alter my approach. I’ve had to take my foot off the speed [training], because that’s when it’s most risky.”
