by The president of World Athletics, Lord Coe, is convinced that it is a “real business” and Keely Hodgkinson, newly crowned sports personality of the year by the BBC, has already accessed the British status.
Hodgkinson jumped to surprise money at 800 meters at the Olympic Games postponed from Tokyo 2020 before meeting expectations as a favorite to win her first Olympic gold medal in Paris this year.
The 22 -year -old has, from Tokyo, won the world’s money twice at the world and will seek to go even further at the 2025 Worlds next September in Japan.
“She is there,” said Coe, questioned about Hodgkinson’s status in the British pantheon.
“She’s there. We do not win the European championships and the Olympic Games and we do not break a national record that has existed for a long time, and we do not finish second in the world ranking, without being there.
“I think the question is how long will it be able to maintain this, since it is so young to do this?”
“But yes, she is up there. I would find it difficult to place a female athlete clearly above her in the history of our sport in the past 50 years.
Hodgkinson made a personal record over 800 meters in 1: 54.61 during the Diamond League competition in London in July, still far from the world record of Jarmila Kratochvilova in 1: 53.28.
When asked if the Briton would be able to go below 41 years of the Czech athlete, Coe, double Olympic champion of 1,500 meters, replied: “In fact, I would love to see this for all kinds reasons.
“I would love to see it because I think it is the real deal. She will already end her career with something that I have never succeeded, that is to say an Olympic title in the 800. I tried twice, so I draw my hat.
“Listen, a second is a lot in athletics, it’s a huge gap, but I just think that it has reach and capacity, and it also has the coach structure.
“It comes from a very good endurance base, and that is what I would describe as a runner of 800 meters a little old -fashioned, and this can be useful.
Capture the silver sequence in style!@keelyhodgkinsonThe gold of the 800 m will be forever iconic
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“I will probably also receive a huge postal bag on this subject, but I think it also helps that it comes from the tradition of northern athletics, which includes the nature of cross-country and real athletics based on Endurance.
“So I think she can get there. I think it can fill this gap, but I don’t have any illusions.
“A second, in reality, is a distance. But I think it has scope and capacities, and it certainly has coaching structures. »»
Coe was quick to emphasize that he was a specialist in athletics, the half-distance runner and background Christopher Chataway, who had been crowned first winner of the sports personality in 1954.
The current owner of World Athletics won it in 1979-before winning Olympic gold in Moscow and Los Angeles-and was twice vice-champion, while Sir Mo Farah, in 2017, was the last time that a sportsman won the award.
When asked what impact this victory could have for Hodgkinson, Coe replied: “I don’t know what the hearing figures are for the moment, but that will not hurt him.
“The fact that there are conjectures and people talk about it and (spoke) of this upstream sport can only be good.”
