Emotional Hodgkinson Delivers 800M Gold for Britain

Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson produced a command performance to win the Olympic 800 metres gold medal on Monday, crossing the line with tears in her eyes to claim her first global title.

The 22-year-old held her nerve to see off Ethiopia’s Tsige Duguma and Kenya’s Mary Moraa, taking the lead halfway through the first lap and unleashing a fierce kick in the final straight to finish in one minute 56.72 seconds.

Hodgkinson had arrived in Paris on a high and was heavy favourite to win gold. She set a new personal best of 1:54.61 in London three weeks ago, a result that made her the sixth-fastest woman of all time over two laps.

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Moraa was on Hodgkinson’s shoulder for most of the race but could not match her in the last 100 metres and was overtaken by Duguma, with Shafiqua Maloney of St Vincent and the Grenadines nipping at her heels.

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