We’ve all been riding the wave this week. That ‘post-Femke Bol 800m debut‘ excitement. Speculating, comparing, guessing. It’s a fun one, because conflicting public opinion makes for a very bumpy ride, but the problem with waves is that at some point they come crashing down onto the shore. Or in this case, the news cycle. One thing it washed up was the headline that Femke Bol wasn’t running any more indoor 800m races this season, and instead focusing on the 600m. Only this story was in fact 2 weeks old. And, who would have thought, news did get its name for a reason. The announcement, rather than breaking news, signalled breaking hopes. In particular that Femke Bol would suddenly decide to carry on after such an impressive indoor debut.
And then there was the Keely Hodgkinson headline. After 3 consecutive indoor seasons cut short due to injury, back to reclaim her British title 6 years after first winning it aged 17. A heroic story, but, unfortunately, again in need of clarification. And a major one at that.
On that note, let’s get into the first story that may have sprinted right past you this week.
Announcements normally come as a shock, but as much as we’d romanticised the idea, it was just that: a fantasy. So I don’t think anyone was surprised when Keely Hodgkinson took to Twitter to say she wasn’t in fact back to chase the title and instead would only contest one round of the indoor 800m. The British Athletics rules say all you have to do is turn up and run, and that’s what she did. Well that, and a little bit more. She may have been doing the bare minimum in terms of World Indoor Championship qualification but that was no casual first round effort.
Keely Hodgkinson hasn’t raced indoors in 3 years. This year 2 women shot themselves almost straight away into the top 10 all-time indoors. That line behind Keely’s 1:57.18 in 6th was not a patient one. By the measurement of many minds Femke Bol’s 1:59.07 debut converted to serious trouble. In other words, she wanted, and needed, a fast time. The British Indoor Championships were framed as this gear up towards Liévin next week, a meet renowned for exactly that, but apparently our idea of what switching gears looks like is very different to that of an Olympic champion.
We should have known what was coming. Injured for most of the season last year, she came out one day in August and just like that: 1:54.74. As if all those months of no action had been building up inside her begging to be let out. Forget not wanting to do more than one round. One round is all Keely Hodgkinson needs to wreak havoc on the entire 800m scene. Which is exactly what she did on Saturday. 1:56.33, the third fastest time 800m indoor time ever, and the best run in 24 years.
I know a lot of people, Audrey Werro included, have been opening their seasons with national records, but that is not normal. It is also not normal to run that fast a time with no pacemakers, no wavelights, and no competition. By 60m Keely Hodgkinson was 10 metres ahead of the rest of the field. No one was getting her there but herself. That drive and mindset, alongside the obvious talent, is what makes her such a force to be reckoned with.
So I think it’s safe to say that while the world indoor 800m record of 1:55.82 still stands, unstable doesn’t even begin to describe the ground it’s on.
But at the end of the day this was a championship, so let’s not let this twist the narrative. Isabelle Boffey is now a triple British Indoor 800m Champion, having won this Sunday’s final, and has the stats to back it up as the 9th fastest woman ever. Keely Hodgkinson not being in that final doesn’t make her any less deserving of a champion. There are no asterisks: it’s not about who you race, it’s about how. And that how is what gets you the win. Which is a skill in and of itself.
Exactly a week after Femke Bol’s 800m debut, it was time for another: Faith Kipyegon and the 10km road race. With 4 individual area records and 2 world records already under her belt across several distances, we already knew Faith Kipyegon’s ceiling was a lot higher than most people’s. We just didn’t know how high. And we still don’t, because this trend of athletes creeping their way up the distances is just another way for them to demonstrate a whole new level of potential we didn’t know existed in the first place.
And in the case of Faith Kipyegon, that potential was a 29:47 win at the Monaco Run, over 4 minutes ahead of the rest of the field. A time that also happens to be the 15th fastest ever recorded over the distance, which must be humbling for the 10km regulars but, well, that’s just what Faith Kipyegon does.
Noah Lyles is anything but subtle. Which is why it feels particularly strange that this season he’s appearing at meets which would, under the usual circumstances, fly under the radar of most athletics fans. Random, maybe, but that seems to be the theme of his year, having previously declared himself ‘open to challenge’ and ready to experiment over the distances.
His 200m race on Saturday could very well count as one of those experiments, given he hasn’t raced it in 6 years, and his PB dates back even further to March 2016. Or at least, it did. In a another match-up similar to his season opener over 300m earlier this year, Noah Lyles just got the edge on his training partner and Ivory Coast national record holder Cheickna Traore, to come away with a win in 20.56. 10 years without a new 200m indoor PB ended by a 0.07 slither, but still an end it was. After all, the race was won the exact same way: at the last second, and by a few milliseconds.
That New Balance Indoor Grand Prix/Millrose Games train of US events that most athletes board every indoor season just got itself a new stop: Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Sound Running’s first ever indoor meet, but as far as the talent goes, they were far from inexperienced. And yes I’m even including 16 year old Sam Ruthe, who with 5 area records for personal bests, can hardly be called fresh.
Only this time it wasn’t a teenager who stole the show. In fact, the show wasn’t stolen at all. It was created, scripted, and starred in, by one man and one man only: Cole Hocker. Which is strange, given that his usual racing style of seemingly appearing out of nowhere, does involve stealing the limelight. But racing this Saturday, we saw something different. In almost time trial-like fashion, Cole Hocker led the chase straight to the second-fastest mile ever recorded indoors, and left the rest of the field almost out of sight at 4.5 seconds behind. The result? 3:45.94, just 0.8 seconds off Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s world record, and breaking Yared Nuguse’s US indoor mile record in the process. A record which, fortunately for Yared Nuguse, at least made it to a year, rather than the 5 days it lasted as a world record.
Speaking of Yared Nuguse, the theme of his season so far is unfortunately being just pipped at the post. First was the loss of his Wanamaker mile crown to Australia’s Cam Myers, and then in the 3000m on Saturday, a race almost-but-not-quite won due to an incredible 26.06 final 200m sprint from Nico Young. Ironically, Nikki Hiltz is having the exact mirror opposite season, having opened with a Wanamaker mile title, and then making it two wins out of two in the step up to the 3000m. That being said the job’s not easy for either of them: a second place streak can be a hard one to shake, but a winning streak is also a tough one to keep.
Coming back from pregnancy didn’t stop Elle St Pierre from winning the 3000m at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix, but illness, on the other hand, did get in the way of a fourth Wanamaker mile title. But that’s all in the past now, because after this weekend at the BU Valentine Invitational, Elle St Pierre might just have cemented, quite literally, a mile-long legacy over this distance.
Front-run, record-breaking time…sound familiar? Probably, because almost everyone I’ve talked about today did exactly that over the weekend. Keely Hodgkinson, Cole Hocker, and yes, Elle St.Pierre. Starting off with evident intention, and likely also, pent-up frustration at her Millrose withdrawal, Elle St.Pierre was not messing around. The pace she was running at, hitting 800m in 2:07.27, was below Genzebe Dibaba’s indoor mile world record from 2016. World record pace. She wasn’t just aiming high, she was aiming the highest.
But it wasn’t meant to be. For that particular record at least. Because while Elle St Pierre may have sacrificed her chances of lowering the world, and her own American, record by setting off at such a hard pace, she gained a different one altogether in the process: the US indoor 1500m record. Her 3:59.33 split knocked 0.27 seconds off the previous record of 3:59.60, so while her efforts may not have paid off in the way she’d hoped, they were definitely not in vain.
There goes the final story in this week’s run through, but Elle St.Pierre’s record chase is far from over.
Here’s another thing about waves: when one breaks, another follows. And this week, that wave, was a whole lot of intentional performances. Times laid, statements made. They’re calling 2026 an ‘off-year’ but the action this indoor season has never been more on. That’s the beauty of it: take away the routine and you have to get creative. And it leaves the audience more hooked than ever.
Rosana is our social media manager intern, specialising in track and road racing. Having previously competed in the 200m and 400m, she keeps up her love for speed endurance with regular track sessions and interval runs. As well as running herself, Rosana is also an avid athletics fan, from volunteering at major track meets to officiating local competitions back in England.
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