Keely Hodgkinson will miss the World Indoor Championships subsequent month with harm that pressured her to drag out of her OWN athletics occasion
- Keely Hodgkinson has not raced since winning Olympic gold in Paris last August
- She has never won a medal at the World Indoors and it was a major goal for her
- The Brit will also be unable to defend title at the European Indoor Championships
Keely Hodgkinson will miss next month’s World Indoor Championships as her hamstring injury means she will not have time to qualify for the event.
The Olympic 800 metres champion was hopeful of competing in Nanjing, China despite the injury which has ruled her out of her world record attempt at Saturday’s Keely Klassic.
However, while Hodgkinson might be back fit for the global event which starts on March 21, she will not have recovered in time to set a qualifying performance before the deadline of March 9.
The qualifying window only opened in September and the 22-year-old has not raced since winning gold at the Paris Olympics last August. There are no exemptions for Nanjing for Olympic champions.
Hodgkinson has never won a medal at the World Indoors and it was a major goal for her this season, after injury also prevented her from competing at the event in Glasgow last year.
She will also be unable to defend her title at the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn, Netherlands, which starts on March 6.
Keely Hodgkinson has not raced since winning 800m gold at the Paris Olympics last August
She will now focus on winning her first gold medal at the World Championships in Tokyo
Hodgkinson will also be unable to defend her title at the European Indoor Championships
Instead, Hodgkinson will now focus on winning her first gold medal at the World Championships in Tokyo in September.
Speaking on Friday about her injury, the British star said: ‘I had my last training session on Wednesday and that went really well. I just did some strides after training and in the last one I felt this pull in my hamstring.
‘At first I thought, “Maybe it’s not too bad”, and then I got a scan and it revealed a bit of a tear.
‘Unfortunately, hamstrings are quite temperamental. They are not to be messed with. I am not going to be running for a little while.
‘The doctor said it was a moderate one. But it’s near the tendon, which makes it a little bit more fragile. It’s sitting on a nerve as well.
‘It’s a grade three, so it’s pretty decently done. I am hoping up to six weeks. It could be quicker, it could be longer.
‘But it shouldn’t affect my outdoor season, which is the main thing. It’s just really, really bad timing.’
