Keely Hodgkinson lifts lid on brutal injury nightmare as Team GB looks for Tokyo double

Keely Hodgkinson admits she thought injury would wreck her bid for World Championship gold - and claims success in Tokyo would trump her Olympic triumph. Hodgkinson is looking to complete a rare set of 800m medals by adding the world crown to her golds last year in Paris and the European Championships in Rome.

But a hamstring tear sustained in February followed by a couple of setbacks meant Hodgkinson was kept out of action until running a world leading time last month in Silesia. The 23-year-old is looking to upgrade world silvers from Eugene 2022 and Budapest 2023 and has even spoke about beating Jarmila Kratochvilova's world record set 42 years ago – the oldest in the sport.

"There was definitely a period of time where I didn't think I was going to be here, it was very touch and go," she said. "It was week by week of when can I run, when can I put spikes on, but we got through it. I have an amazing team and yes we're here in a good place, somehow fighting for a gold medal.

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“Whatever happens this year in Tokyo, hopefully it's what I want because it will just mean even more than Paris last year. That is kind of crazy because that obviously changed my life and winning the Olympics is what every athlete wants to do.

"The challenge it took to get here would just make it that much sweeter, so I'm just really excited."

Hodgkinson has spent a week at the British team's preparation camp in Miyazaki and is enjoying being back in Japan, where she made her breakthrough at the Olympics four years ago. At just 19, she carved two seconds off her personal best in a race won by Athing Mu-Nikolayev.

Mu-Nikolayev missed last year's Olympics through injury and failed to qualify for the US team in Tokyo, while defending world champion Mary Moraa has had an up-and-down campaign. It means Hodgkinson’s training partner and prep camp roommate, Georgia Hunter Bell, could be her biggest threat for gold.

Hunter Bell has prioritised the 800m over the 1500m, which she won Olympic bronze in last year, after two Diamond League wins. A British 1-2 is a very real prospect and double Olympic champion Lord Coe, who is president of World Athletics, believes a Hodgkinson victory could set her on the path to become the greatest athlete ever.

“She could end up at the top of the heap internationally if she goes on,” he said. “Touch wood, she’s got many seasons ahead of her. I’ve spoken to her enough times to know that, mentally, she’s mahogany hard. She really is.

“She wants to end her career at the top of the heap and there’s no reason why she shouldn’t.”

Follow all the action from the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 on the BBC.