Keely Hodgkinson ran with the weight of Great Britain’s expectations on her shoulders but still emerged Olympic 800m champion at Stade de France.
The Wigan world silver medallist was the heavy favourite heading not just into Monday night’s final but well ahead of these Games, setting a world-leading time of 1:54.61 just over two weeks before what had increasingly started to feel like a dance with destiny.
On a clear Monday evening in Paris she was calm and collected, moving up from fifth to first entering the final lap and cruised across the line in 1:56.72.
Ethiopia’s Tsige Duguma surged to silver in 1:57.15, while Kenya’s world champion Mary Moraa collected bronze.
Three summers ago in Tokyo, a then 19-year-old Hodgkinson stormed to a surprise silver, breaking a British record set by Dame Kelly Holmes for 26 years.
A new Olympic champion was always guaranteed after Hodgkinson’s biggest rival, American Athing Mu, fell in the United States trials and did not qualify.
Since Tokyo, Hodgkinson had finished runner-up at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, and back-to-back World Championships, but claimed two European tiles.
The silver streak came to an end on Monday, when the Manchester United fan became the first British woman to win an Olympic 800m title since Holmes reached the top of the podium in Athens 20 years ago – not long after 22-year-old Hodgkinson was born.
