British pair have history in their sights

There are alternative ways of assessing the true number of current British athletics world-record holders. Depending on the esteem you hold for the indoor 4x200m – a discipline almost never run outside of low-key American college meets – the longest-standing GB world-record holders remain the sprint quartet that triumphed in that event on Glasgow’s banked boards way back in March 1991.

More recently, the annals of obscurity have been added to by Mo Farah, who managed 21,330m in a one-hour distance trial during deepest Covid lockdown, and Elliot Giles, the all-time fastest mile runner on a road.

But peel away those imitators from the genuine articles, and the list is populated by an exclusive pair: Jonathan Edwards’s memorable world title-winning triple jump from 1995 and Keely Hodgkinson’s indoor 800m mark set this February.

In such a context, next month’s London Diamond League could provide one of the most extraordinary afternoons in the nation’s athletics history – certainly outside of a major championship – with two British athletes targeting longstanding world records in front of a home crowd.

In a career that has already yielded an Olympic gold and three global silver medals, Hodgkinson has routinely worn the matter-of-fact confidence of a woman fully aware of her own exceptional capabilities. So when she speaks plainly of her designs on adding the sport’s longest-standing world record – the 43-year-old outdoor 800m mark – to the indoor one she already possesses, it is not arrogance but fact.

Likewise, few of her British contemporaries are as bullish as the former 1,500m world champion Josh Kerr – a man so intent on surpassing the 27-year-old mile world record next month that he etches the words “I ran 3.42 at the London Diamond League. July 18th, 2026”, in the same notebook, using the same pen, every single day. He also ensures his ice bath sessions last precisely three minutes and 42 seconds, reflecting the time he needs to beat Hicham El Guerrouj’s mark from 1999.

In a fallow year without an Olympics or world championships, Britain’s two outstanding athletes are providing the season with meaning. The present question is how best to achieve their goal.

For Kerr, outside of fixating on his specific target time, it has thus far involved not a single race at either the mile or metric mile (1,500m) distance all year. He is not competing at this weekend’s UK Athletics Championships simply because he sees no benefit to his sole objective. The one-track mind seeks no distractions.

Hodgkinson is here at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium, albeit treating the event as a speed workout over the shorter 400m distance. At least, that is what she thinks it is, responding “I just turn up to training” when asked for the thought process behind it. No unnecessary detail required.

That Hodgkinson was beaten in her sole 800m race so far this summer only adds to the intrigue surrounding her quest.

For decades, the 1:53.28 record held by Czechoslovakia’s Jarmila Kratochvílová had stood largely unchallenged; a relic of an era riddled with nefarious doping exploits. Now, there are multiple athletes bearing down on it.

Indeed, by the time Hodgkinson arrives in London next month, there is every chance a new name will already have been added to the record books. It might be hers, but it could alternatively be Audrey Werro’s. For the past couple of years, the Swiss athlete has customarily trailed her British rival, steadily edging closer to her heel when claiming world indoor silver behind Hodgkinson earlier this year.

Unbeaten this summer, Werro then took Hodgkinson’s unexpected scalp a fortnight ago in what was the Olympic champion’s season-opening 800m race, in the process clocking the fastest time in the world since the drug-addled 1980s.

Suddenly, Hodgkinson is not alone in chasing a previously unthinkable mark, and both she and Werro have the opportunity to scrub Kratochvílová’s time from the record books when competing in separate Diamond League races prior to the London race.

“It’s really good to have someone pushing you,” said Hodgkinson on Saturday, after advancing fifth fastest from the UK Championships 400m heats.

“She’s really good. She ran well the other day and backed it up, but I like a challenge. So we’ll see next time we meet up.

“The best races and the fastest races are when you’ve got all athletes going for it. So I’m excited.”

Aided by developments in shoe technology and fuelling strategies – notably the advent of tolerable sodium bicarbonate supplements – the two-lap discipline appears to occupy an accidental sweet spot in advancements. In 2023, 59 women broke two minutes for 800m; over the next two years that number climbed to 78 and then 88, with 75 women already dipping below the barrier in 2026 before the athletics summer even approaches full swing. At the summit, Hodgkinson and Werro form a seemingly untouchable duo, claiming four apiece in the eight top-fastest times this calendar year.

Their clash will form the showpiece attraction at August’s European Championships, which will be held on the same Birmingham track that Hodgkinson contests Sunday’s UK 400m final. If one of them is introduced as the world-record holder at that event – as appears increasingly possible – it will be one of the great modern athletics feats.

Some world records are worth more than others.

Photograph by Naomi Baker/Getty Images