by The president of world athletics, Lord Coe, is convinced of the “real affair” and the sporting personality of the newly crowned BBC of the year Keely Hodgkinson has already reached the great British status.
Hodgkinson jumped to surprise 800 meters of silver at the Olympic Games postponed from Tokyo 2020 before meeting expectations as a favorite to claim his first Olympic gold in Paris this year.
The 22 -year -old has, since Tokyo, has twice collected money at the world championships and will seek to go further to the Worlds 2025 next September in Japan.
“She is there,” said Coe, questioned about Hodgkinson’s status in the British pantheon.
“She’s there. You do not win Europeans and the Olympic Games and actually break a national record that stayed for a long time, and finish number two on the world’s classification list, without being there.
“I think the question is how long will it be able to maintain this, to be so relatively young by doing this?”
“But, yes, she is up there. I would be hard to place a female athlete considerably above her in the history of our sport in the past 50 years. »»
Hodgkinson ran a better 800 meter of 1: 54.61 during the London Diamond League competition in July, once again off the world record of Jarmila Kratochvilova 1: 53.28.
When asked if the Briton would be able to go under the 41 -year -old marker of the Czech athlete, the 1500 meter Olympic champion, Coe, replied: “I would love to see this for all kinds of reasons, In fact.
“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, which is an Olympic title at 800. I tried twice, so I remove 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 structure of coaches.
“It comes from a very good endurance basis, and it would describe as a runner of 800 meters slightly old -fashioned, and this can be useful.
“I will probably also get a huge post bag on this subject, but I think it also helps that it comes from the tradition of athletics in the North, which understands the nature of cross-country and real athletics based on ‘endurance.
“So I think she can do that. I think it can fill this gap, but I don’t give myself myself.
“A second, in reality, is a distance. But I think it has reach and capacity, and she certainly has coaching structures. »»
Coe quickly pointed out that he was a athletics, the average and long distance runner Christopher Chataway, who was crowned winner of the sporting personality of the year in 1954.
The head of the world of current athletics won him himself in 1979 – before claiming Olympic gold in Moscow and Los Angeles – and was twice a finalist, while the Tour of Sir Mo Farah in 2017 was The last time someone athletics won the prize.
Asked what impact the victory could have for Hodgkinson, Coe replied: “I don’t know what vision figures are right now, but that will not hurt him.
“The fact that there is a conjecture and that people talk about it and (spoke) of sport in the seeded can only be good.”
