Keely Hodgkinson has responded to comments about her attitude after World Athletics president Sebastian Coe described her as the 'most authentic person' he knows and said the sport needs 'ballsy people'.
The 24-year-old won the 800m at the London Diamond League in one minute, 56.21 seconds. While she did not break the record, she celebrated and addressed the remarks.
Hodgkinson speaks out
Speaking to Sky Sports, Hodgkinson said: 'I think it probably just shows our characters really. Like I think I mean, I just stay true to myself. You know, Josh [Kerr] stays true to himself and what he likes to do. But to do this job like, you've got to have balls and guts and you have got to put yourself out there even when it's not necessarily going your way.'
She was aiming to break the 800m record of one minute, 53.28 seconds, set by Czech athlete Jarmila Kratochvilova. However, the 24-year-old suffered a torn hamstring last year and also pulled out of the UK Athletics Championships due to muscle tightness.
Comeback pride
Upon her return to the Diamond League, Hodgkinson remained proud of her achievements. She added: 'So that's why I'm really proud of how I've dealt with the last couple of weeks. Like I could've not ran today and I could've shied away from it, but put myself back out there and I just deal with the cards I'm dealt with. And yeah, Josh did really well and he gave the crowd something to go home with.'
Coe had previously praised Hodgkinson on the UNTAPPED podcast, recalling a chance meeting. He said: 'What I love about Keely is she is probably the most, forget athletics, she's probably the most authentic person I currently know. What you see with Keely is what you get. She is very funny, she's totally driven, but she puts things in perspective. I was up in Manchester not that long ago and I bumped into her one night going into a restaurant. I was on my way out. I'd sort of done the early shift and she turned up and it was her birthday. It was a couple of weeks... I mean she'd only just broken the indoor world record. She was only literally a few days away from destroying the field and winning her world indoor title and she was just out celebrating her birthday. She's just completely normal, but she is incredibly well talented. She's got a great coaching team around her.'
