Keely Hodgkinson has lifted the lid on how plans to chase the 800m world record this summer were ruined by a freak accident that her team has likened to whiplash. The Olympic champion will run her final race of the season in the Athlos meeting in London on Friday, having returned last week from a hamstring tear sustained at the European Championships in August. However, Hodgkinson believes the root cause of the injury was actually a fall during a cooldown run in July, when she tripped heavily on a metal grill while jogging along a canal.
The fall was so sudden that the 24-year-old was unable to get her hands down in time and was left with bloody knees and a jarred back. Hodgkinson now suspects her hamstring issue at the Europeans was likely a consequence of the fall. And I think that’s what’s contributed to my hamstring, because I couldn’t really use my quad for a while.” The freak accident has parallels with Steve Ovett, who after breaking the world mile record in August 1981, tripped and fell through metal railings four months’ later, badly injuring his knee and severely impacting his season the next year.
Hodgkinson also revealed that she suffered a tear in her hamstring during the European Championships final, having felt a twinge 10 minutes before the race. However, because of her unusual genetics, she was still able to train after the injury. We found it last year on an MRI scan after I tore it.
So when one of them tore, I still had another one. It meant that I didn’t feel the injury until later on when it got a bit tight. I was like: ‘Oh, something’s not quite right,’ but it didn’t affect me during the race.
But maybe it’s slightly weaker than the one that’s attached. But it’s a weird one: you can still run and I haven’t missed any training the last three weeks. I’ve just had to alter my approach.” Hodgkinson can still look on her 800m season with pride, having broken the indoor world record in February, won the world indoor title in March, and then set a personal best outdoors in June.
Asked why she had decided to run at the Ultimate Championships in Budapest and at Athlos, despite having done little speed work, Hodgkinson replied that she wanted to prove to herself she could compete in far from ideal circumstances. I’m not saying it will and, touch wood, it doesn’t. But I know that I can do this, regardless of if stuff goes right or wrong, and I can still perform with the best in the world.
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