Olympic hero Keely Hodgkinson will bid for a third straight European title on home soil at Birmingham 2026 with all eyes on the reigning BBC Sports Personality of the Year
Kelly Sotherton has backed golden girl Keely Hodgkinson to clinch her European three-peat on home soil next summer.
Olympic gold last year made Hodgkinson a household name and her unforgettable 2024 was crowned with the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award.
The 23-year-old superstar will head to Tokyo in September with her eyes on clinching a maiden World Championship title, while the following year will see her bid for a third successive European crown in Birmingham, which is hosting the 2026 European Athletics Championships.
Sotherton, who won three Olympic bronze medals across Athens and Beijing, has no doubt that a gold medal will be on Hodgkinson’s neck at the Alexander Stadium next summer – the only question is how it will be won.
“Keely is a legend in the making,” she said. “She’s still an extremely young athlete but everyone knows who she is.
“The accumulation of her hard work leading into Paris and what she achieved, everyone expected it and she delivered on demand.
“I can only see that her expectations will not be ‘if’ she wins but instead ‘how’ she wins it (in Birmingham) and that’s the exciting part.
“For the good of athletics, you want exciting races and Keely will always put an exciting race on.
“I’m probably putting a gold medal around her neck and I probably shouldn’t. But that’s the expectation of her now and rightly so.”
Birmingham’s return to the sporting spotlight next summer will come just four years on from the Commonwealth Games and mark the first time the Europeans have ever been hosted in the UK.
The competition will also be the first standalone outdoor athletics event hosted in Britain since the 2017 World Athletics Championships in London.
Sotherton knows the importance of having a home crowd at a major championships, winning pentathlon silver at the European Indoors in 2007.
And with West Midlands hero Matt Hudson-Smith having grown up just a couple of miles down the road from Alexander Stadium, Sotherton knows having those iconic British names on the start sheet can guarantee a sellout crowd in 2026.
“For Matt Hudson-Smith, he’s trained here, he’s started his athletics career here about 17 years ago, so he is a true homegrown athlete which is really important,” she said.
“Everyone wants to see not just British athletes but people who were born in the city and grew up, so I’m sure that Matt is really looking forward to competing here.
“The last time he was here, he came second in Birmingham 2022 at the Commonwealth Games so he will obviously want to finish with a gold.
“Anybody who was here and watched Birmingham 2022 knows that this is a magic stadium.
“I can only see it being bigger and better in 2026. Birmingham really know how to hold an event.”
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