PARIS: Keely Hodgkinson clinched Britain’s first athletics gold medal of the Paris Olympics by winning the women’s 800m final on Monday.
The 22-year-old, a silver medallist at the Tokyo Games three years ago, held off a late charge from Ethiopia’s Tsige Duguma to win in 1:56.72 at the Stade de France, Xinhua reported.
Duguma took silver with a personal best time of 1:57.15, while Kenya’s Mary Moraa claimed bronze in 1:57.42.
“I’m super happy. I’m now the Olympic champion for the next four years, and no one can take that away from me,“ Hodgkinson said.
“I’ve worked so hard over the past year, and you could see how much it meant to me as I crossed the line.”
Monday’s triumph followed a series of near-misses for Hodgkinson, who had finished second at the past two world championships after her silver in Tokyo.
However, she found another gear here, pulling away from her nearest rivals at the final bend and fending off Duguma’s challenge.
“I can’t believe I’ve finally done it,“ she said. “It means so much to me. And to do it here, where better? The audience was absolutely incredible, it felt like a home crowd to me. So I’m super happy.”
It was Britain’s first Olympic track medal since Mo Farah secured the 5,000m and 10,000m double at Rio 2016. Hodgkinson is only the 10th British woman to win an athletics gold medal at the Olympics.
