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World Athletics Championships: Georgia Hunter Bell takes silver, Keely Hodgkinson bronze in women's 800m

Georgia Hunter Bell and Keely Hodgkinson have to settle for silver and bronze as Lilian Odira claims gold in Tokyo; Hodgkinson had led for much of the race but was overtaken in the closing stages; Odira set new World Championship record

Sunday 21 September 2025 16:58, UK

Great Britain's Keely Hodgkinson and Georgia Hunter Bell win bronze and silver in World Athletics Championships 800m
Image: Great Britain's Keely Hodgkinson and Georgia Hunter Bell win bronze and silver in World Athletics Championships 800m

Team GB pair Georgia Hunter Bell and Keely Hodgkinson finished second and third in a high-quality women's 800m final at the World Championships.

Lilian Odira took the gold medal, overtaking the British pair at the last moment in Tokyo.

Hodgkinson led the race for long spells and a GB one-two looked on the cards until Odira blazed past the pair in 1:54.62, a new championship record.

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Hunter Bell ran a superb personal best of 1:54.90 to beat Olympic champion Hodgkinson by 0.01 seconds.

It was the first time a British pair have won two medals in the same event of the World Championships for 18 years.

Hodgkinson and Hunter Bell had to wait before screens inside the stadium showed the latter, who claimed 1500m bronze on her Olympic debut in Paris last summer, had got over the line faster by the finest of margins.

Hunter Bell had debated racing at both distances at these championships before deciding to focus on the 800m, and was even prep camp room-mates with bronze medallist Hodgkinson.

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It was nevertheless a brave and determined showing for Hodgkinson, who just last month returned from a 376-day injury-plagued absence after becoming the Olympic champion.

Hodgkinson: I thought I had won it

Great Britain's Keely Hodgkinson heads for the finish line to take the bronze medal, behind winner Kenya's Lilian Odira during the Women's 8
Image: Olympic champion Hodgkinson thought she had won silver, but was pipped by Hunter Bell with Lilian Odira prevailing

"I felt pretty good at the start and it was quick out there and a bit of tussling and surging that might have wasted a bit of energy but I was in it to win it, and when you go in for gold, you risk dropping off the podium or coming second or third," Hodgkinson told BBC Sport.

"I'm happy for the both of us, we both got a medal, my third 1:54 and to be consistent like that, especially after the year I've had, it's not what I came here for but I can't be too disappointed.

"I thought I had it. But [Lilian] Odira ran past and I did my best. The last 10m my legs were falling off. I ran it how I ran it and this is what the result is."

Hunter Bell: I'm so happy

"I wanted to show what I can do in the 800m and I knew I had to come into it fresh if I wanted to get a medal and doing both [800m and 1500m] would be too hard," Hunter Bell told BBC Sport. "The competition is so good.

"I'm so happy, the fastest time I've ever run. I knew it would be fast from seeing the girls in the field but I was just like 'don't get dropped' and try to hang on to get the kick in the end."

Injuries at these championships to 2024 world indoor pole vault champion Molly Caudery, Josh Kerr, who entered as the defending 1500m champion, 400 metres duo Samuel Reardon and - all but confirmed - Matt Hudson-Smith, the individual Olympic silver medallist last summer, had already dented British medal hopes, dialling up the pressure on Hodgkinson and Hunter Bell to deliver.

Five medals

Great Britain's Daryll Neita, Desiree Henry and Dina Asher-Smith after finishing fourth in the Women's 4x100 Metres Relay on day nine of the
Image: Britain's Daryll Neita, Desiree Henry and Dina Asher-Smith after finishing fourth in the women's 4x100m relay

In the end Great Britain finished with five medals - silvers for Hunter Bell, Jake Wightman (1500m) and Amy Hunt (200m) Hodgkinson's bronze, and another of the same colour for 2023 heptathlon champion Katarina Johnson-Thompson.

The women's 4x100m relay quartet of Dina Asher-Smith, Hunt, Desiree Henry and Daryll Neita were Great Britain's last hope for a sixth medal but finished just off the podium in fourth.

Asher-Smith said: "Obviously we wanted to come home with a gold medal, that's all we ever aim for, but we will go back, analyse it, do all that stuff we are so great at doing. If we are giving it everything, there is never going to be disappointment, we will learn, move forward and increase it next time."

Lee Thompson, Toby Harries, Lewis Davey and Charlie Dobson finished sixth in the men's 4x400m relay in 3:03.05. Botswana were the winners, the United States took silver, and South Africa claimed bronze.

George Mills, the 2024 European silver medallist, did not stop for comment after finishing last in the 5000m in 13:44.88, and there was a seventh-place finish for high jumper Morgan Lake in her final with a best effort of 1.93 metres.

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