‘No one can touch her’ – Kelly Holmes hails Keely Hodgkinson who wins Team GB’s first Olympic athletics gold since Rio 2016

Dame Kelly Holmes has hailed Keely Hodgkinson’s ‘awesome’ display to win Olympic gold in the women’s 800m final on Monday night.

The British star put in a sensational showing in Paris and claimed gold with relative comfort after recording a time of 1:56.72 seconds.

Having been held to silver in Tokyo three years ago, the 22-year-old won the first gold for Team GB in athletics since Mo Farah won double-gold at Rio 2016 in the 5,000m and 10,000m.

Hodgkinson also became the first Team GB athlete to win 800m gold since Holmes at Athens 2004, where she also won the 1,500m.

Reflecting on the race, Hodgkinson told Holmes for talkSPORT: “It feels incredible! I feel like it hasn’t sunk in yet, I’m still in shock.

“My head’s all over the place, I’ve worked so hard for this, and to see it come together, me and my team, it’s not mine, it’s a team process all of this, and I’m just super happy.

“And my dad is crying his eyes out over there!”

Hodgkinson has also become the first 800m runner to ring the victory bell, where she said of the honour: “It’s absolutely sick, it just brings another atmosphere to it.

“Everyone went quiet, and to get to ring that bell, it really is your moment. I forgot I would be able to do that, so that was really cool.”

And she then told Holmes she’s more than welcome to party into the night with her after the 54-year-old asked to celebrate with her.

To which she said: “Of course! My agent has got a bar somewhere in Paris. So everyone is welcome to come and join the fun.”

This led Holmes to reply: “Well done Keely, I’m so proud of you.”

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Speaking after the race on talkSPORT’s coverage of the Paris Olympics, Holmes waxed lyrical over Hodgkinson, as she said: “That was awesome!

“She was in control, all she had to do was stay clean, stay at the front out of trouble and do what she had to do to win that.

“She didn’t have to do anything silly or go for a massive time, but at 1.56 she did what she came out to do and turned that silver medal into a good.

“It’s well-deserved – a fantastic race.

“It was a strong, focused and mature race. She knew what she had to do, she was in control and just had to be at the front at the end.

“If she’d done anything silly – gone off too fast or got boxed in it would have been a different story, but it wasn’t going to be a different story.

“She had one mission and that was to come in and run her best.

“She’s world number one by miles at the moment – no one can touch her right now on speed, but it’s different in a final because the pressure is on.

“The adrenaline is rushing through you, your mind can take you all over the place but she took that pressure to hand and she executed.

Asked if she can dominate for a generation, Holmes remarked: “Absolutely.

“It’s her second Olympic games, she’s 22-years-old and her first was at 19 in Tokyo so she’s got a long future ahead of her, but it’s about now, it’s about this celebration.

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“Who cares what she does going forward, she’s just become Olympic champion!

“Let’s celebrate everything that she’s come here to do and after that, we can worry about it another time.”

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