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Geraint Hughes will get unique entry to Pyrenees coaching base with Olympic 800m gold medalist Keely Hodgkinson
Geraint Hughes will get unique entry to Pyrenees coaching base with Olympic 800m gold medalist Keely Hodgkinson
If you happen to turn into an Olympic champion, you possibly can sit again and benefit from the glory of that second, or you may make plans to turn into a legend in your sport. Keely Hodgkinson, Olympic gold medalist within the 800m, determined to decide on the latter.
The work begins within the Pyrenees, the place the air is skinny and skinny. Within the small French mountain village of Font-Romeu, about 6,000 ft above sea stage, Hodgkinson works with different members of the teaching workers, together with coach Trevor Painter and his spouse, Jeanne Might Jenny Meadows, herself a famend 800-meter runner, gained the bronze medal on the 2009 World Championships.
Coaching at excessive altitudes, the place the air is thinner and there may be much less oxygen, creates the right surroundings for elite athletes like Hodgkinson to start grueling winter coaching in preparation for subsequent season.
As Painter explains, coaching at altitude permits the physique to naturally produce extra crimson blood cells to compensate for the dearth of oxygen, so when athletes return to decrease altitudes, their underlying health is best.
It is a good begin for any athlete, and it is a well-trodden path for many elite Olympians.
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Miriam Walker-Khan reviews on Hodgkinson’s ladies’s 800m gold in Paris
For Hodgkinson, she plans to have an bold 2025 season to enrich the ambitions of an Olympic champion.
Again on that superb August evening in Paris, I requested Hodgkinson if she knew she would win the gold medal earlier than the competitors started. “Nicely, sure,” she replied with a smile that did not come throughout as smug.
All she knew was that she might and possibly would win the race. At 22, she was in one of the best bodily form of her younger profession, having set a brand new British 800m file simply weeks earlier than the Olympic closing.
Hodgkinson believed in destiny and believed this was her evening, and she or he proved to be probably the most dominant performances on the Paris circuit.
Again to what Hodgkinson was doing within the Pyrenees. That is as a result of she and her coaches consider the Brit can turn into one in every of athletics’ true greats.
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Olympic 800m champion Hodgkinson displays on her victory in Paris and says she was all the time backing herself to win gold within the closing
On the age of 19, Hodgkinson burst onto the worldwide stage when he gained a silver medal within the 800m on the Tokyo Olympics. On the time, nearly nobody outdoors of British athletics had heard of her, however for many who did, she was already one thing particular.
Two World Championship silver medals adopted earlier than that golden evening in early August, however gold modified every part.
“The distinction between a silver medal and a gold medal is simply wonderful, loopy,” Hodgkinson stated, explaining that he was being acknowledged extra usually and was getting extra alternatives to do issues outdoors of sports activities.
Some got here from the world of trend, an trade she loves, whereas she additionally obtained VIP therapy from Manchester United as she was honored in entrance of 75,000 followers at Previous Trafford.
Hodgkinson is from Atherton, simply outdoors Manchester, and is a lifelong fan of the membership. Her household, who’re additionally United supporters, watched with satisfaction as she confirmed off her gold medal to the gang and was offered with a framed shirt bearing her Olympic 800m profitable time – together with the very acceptable quantity.” 1″.
Hodgkinson honored in Manchester United match at Previous Trafford
Meadows is aware of a factor or two in regards to the 800m and predicts Hodgkinson will dominate the game.
“It could actually’t be silver and bronze anymore. She will be able to dominate the game and turn into a legend.”
That begins with the 2025 season, and Hodgkinson and her coaches will fastidiously select her enjoying schedule in what appears to be like to be a really busy 12 months.
The European Indoor Championships within the Netherlands and the World Indoor Championships in China are each held in March, whereas the spotlight of the outside season is the World Championships in Japan in September.
There are different ambitions, within the type of information. However whereas the objective of the race is definite, the stopwatch strategy is “when it occurs, it occurs.”
Painter and Meadows are assured in Hodkinson’s expertise and consider she is going to be capable to break the 800m indoor and outside world information.
The indoor file is probably the simpler of the 2 to interrupt. The 800m outside world file was set in July 1983, making it the oldest world file in monitor and area historical past, and the time of 1:53.28 was thought-about untouchable for a few years.
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Hodgkinson displays on gold-medal efficiency in 800m and units world file as her subsequent objective
Nonetheless, Hodgkinson is clearly getting sooner and should be just a few years away from reaching her potential. Her private finest was the sixth-fastest 800m ever, simply over a second shy of Jarmila Kratochvilova’s world file, however Hodge was already being felt Kanamori could be very able to working a sub-1:54 time.
Hodgkinson shouldn’t be solely one of the best 800m runner on the planet, however he’s additionally very helpful on the 400m, so pace is an attribute in hand.
Regardless of Hodgkinson’s success, the 22-year-old stays down-to-earth, approachable and humorous. Family and friends had been her pillars of help, and Painters and Meadows had been like her second household. Their daughter Arabella knew Hodgkinson solely as “Aunt Keeley.”
The 2 males not solely stored Hodgkinson grounded, but additionally organized her schedule to offer her area and time away from athletics, in addition to a piece schedule that allowed her to give attention to the coaching regime at hand.
They joked, smiled, laughed, however continued to work arduous as a unit.
After a 35-minute “warm-up” at 6,000 ft not removed from Font-Romeu, Hodgkinson sat on the rocks to recuperate and stated: “I requested Trev for a Sunday off. He stated to be an Olympic Champion, you are able to do it.
I requested him if he had stored his phrase, and she or he confirmed it enthusiastically, gasping for air to regain her power.
A painter appeared on with a smile from just a few yards away and stated with depraved timing and humor: “She’s doing arduous power and conditioning coaching within the health club now…at altitude, you are going to love this!”
On this ambiance, there may be little doubt that 2025 will see Hodgkinson additional cement her standing as one in every of Britain’s present sporting superstars.
