British middle distance star Keely Hodgkinson will launch her defence of the women’s 800m Diamond Trophy on home soil at the M\u00fcller Birmingham Diamond League on Saturday 21 May.<\/p>\n
The Olympic 800m silver medallist and British record holder is hoping to put her World Indoor Athletics experience behind her when she returns to Wanda Diamond League action at the Alexander Stadium.<\/p>\n
The prodigious young talent, who turned 20 earlier this month, was favourite to take the world indoor gold in Belgrade after smashing the British indoor 800m record in February clocking 1:57.20, the fastest time indoors for 20 years but unfortunately had to withdraw due to a strain to her right quad muscle. <\/p>\n
In a year stacked with competitive opportunities including the World and European Athletics Championships and potentially the Commonwealth Games, Hodgkinson – who ran 1:55.88 in Tokyo to break Dame Kelly Holmes\u2019 long-standing national record – was unwilling to take an unnecessary risk. However she is now earmarking Birmingham as the ideal way to start her summer campaign:<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year was incredible from start to finish which I think made the decision to come out of the world indoors even harder,\u201d says the 2021 European indoor and Wanda Diamond League champion. \u201cI obviously went to Belgrade to win gold and I didn\u2019t even make the start line, so I was gutted. I\u2019ve never had to pull out a race before, but it\u2019s about looking at the bigger picture and making sure the problem is fixed and doesn\u2019t reoccur.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve still got a lot to learn as a professional athlete and that experience, which was pretty upsetting at the time, taught me a lot. I\u2019m grateful to have such a brilliant team around me to support me and I\u2019m already making good progress. I got back to running within about ten days, which was what we had hoped for, and I\u2019m now totally focused on my return to full fitness and to winning medals at the big championships this summer. I\u2019ve got high expectations, but I\u2019m at my most comfortable on the track and I can\u2019t wait to kick off my summer campaign in Birmingham.\u201d<\/p>\n