Georgia Hunter Bell and Keely Hodgkinson delivered the first British double medal at a global middle distance championship for 41 years, but a first gold of these World Championships continues to elude the British team.
In what was one of the greatest women’s 800m races in history, three runners went inside 1min 55sec, with Kenya’s Lilian Odira proving both strongest and smartest tactically to overhaul Hodgkinson, who had led for much of the race, in the finishing straight.
Odia ran a personal best by almost two seconds. Hunter Bell, who is a training partner of Hodgkinson, also ran a 1min 54.90sec personal best while Hodgkinson’s 1min 54.91sec was her third fastest ever time and almost two seconds quicker than she ran in winning Paris gold.
Hodgkinson had been expected to surpass even Sebastian Coe, Steve Ovett, Steve Cram, Dame Kelly Holmes, Josh Kerr and Jake Wightman to become the first British middle-distance runner to add a World title to an Olympic gold following an injury-hit year.
She immediately attempted to dominate the race, just as in Paris last year, but had to contend with Odira’s Kenyan team-mate and defending world champion Mary Moraa vying for the lead during most of the race.
