Keely Hodgkinson believes athletics stars never get the credit they deserve.
The 21-year-old is in Budapest ahead of her assault on the 800 metres title at the World Championships.
Emma Raducanu’s US Open win in 2021 catapulted her to stardom while Hodgkinson is still a relative unknown outside of athletics in the UK.
That is despite her Olympic and world silver medals along with three European golds.
She said: “I do think us athletes work a lot harder than some other sports and we don’t get the recognition we deserve. I don’t know how but hopefully we will get there.
“I think because an athlete is individual, obviously you have your team around you which is great but you have a lot of individualisation time. I think it’s just hard.
“If it’s a team and you lose, the whole team is supporting you. If it’s you, everything is on you and you’re the one that controls what happens when you set off.
“That’s just a different kind of pressure. Training for these events, it’s tough. Footballers think they’re fit, they’re just not. Because if you brought them down to the track they wouldn’t keep up.
“Everyone works hard. Tennis players work really hard, everything is just different. But in all the different aspects you have in athletics, I don’t think people realise the behind the scenes of what goes into it.”
Hodgkinson has also limited the brands she works with – just Nike, Omega and Maurten – to ensure she remains focused on training, but was still called ‘athletics’ new It girl’ in an interview with Vogue this month.
“When you work with brands they also want something back,” she adds. “Days here, days in London, media days. If you’ve got six, seven, eight different brands your time is going to be taken up quite a bit – and my main priority is training.
“I just want to make sure they understand and they don’t want too much from me that it takes away or stresses me out, or anything like that. I’m protecting who I work with just to see what comes along.”
Her quest for 800m gold starts in the heats on Wednesday but world champion, the USA’s Athing Mu, has been keeping Hodgkinson guessing over whether she will compete in Hungary or focus on next year’s Paris Olympics.
Hodgkinson finished second behind Mu in Eugene last year and at the Tokyo Olympics, with their battle still poised to be one of the races of the Championships.
“When you’re missing a big name, when people come they want to watch that,” she said. “It would definitely be a shame if she’s missing. But we don’t know what’s going on on her side of the world and what her story is.
“We’ve not heard anything so I guess we just have to wait and see, but I try not to think about who’s going to turn up and who’s not.
“You kind of go in with the mentality that everyone’s going to be there and if they’re not, they’re not.
“That (gold) is a personal goal of mine anyway. So it would just be quite fulfilling if I did that.”
Meanwhile, skipper Laura Muir starts her 1500m campaign at the National Athletics Centre on Saturday, along with GB team-mates Katie Snowden and Melissa Courtney-Bryant, aiming to challenge Kenya’s world and Olympic champion Faith Kipyegon.
“Obviously, you always want to come away with a medal but it’s about the stuff you can control,” said Muir. “That’s what I talked about in the captaincy speech.
“The two key messages were: no limitations on yourself, because you don’t know what you’re capable of, you can go out there and run way faster than you thought, and then no expectations of others.
“You have no idea what other people are capable of either and what shape they’re in.”
Jamaica's 4x400m women, T&T's men book tickets to Paris
Jamaica’s 4x400m women have also booked their place at the Olympic Games in Paris this summer by winning the second round heat at the World Relays in the Bahamas on Sunday. The same four women lined up for the heat with the difference being that Roneisha McGregor running the lead off leg, Charokee Young on the second leg, Ashley Williams on the third leg and Junelle Bromfield on anchor.
The changes proved effective as the Jamaicans ran away with the heat winning impressively in 3:38.54.
India is also on their way to Paris after they finished in second place in a time of 3:29.35.
The Netherlands (3:27.45) and Switzerland (3:28.30) are also through along with Belgium (3:26.79) and Spain (3:27.30), a national record.
Meanwhile, Jamaica’s men will have to find another route to Paris after finished fifth in their heat and failed to qualify.
Trinidad and Tobago, though, produced a brave performance to secure a place in Paris. The quartet of Asa Guevara, Jereem Richards, Che Lara and Shakeem McKay battled hard to hold off France and seal the the final qualifying spot. Brazil won the heat in 3:01.86 with the brave Trinidadians finishing in 3:02.39.
Jamaica and Trinidad women shine to book 4x100m relay spots in Paris
Jamaica continued their resurgence from a disappointing first day at the World Relays in the Bahamas when they won their heat in round two of the 4x100m relays to advance to book their tickets to Paris this summer.
Using the same foursome – Jodean Smith, Tia Clayton, Alana Reid and Remona Burchell - that ran on Saturday, changed their running order with Burchell and Reid – switching positions on the third and fourth legs.
The change worked like a charm as they sped to victory in 42.74 seconds to advance to the final and onto Paris.
Jamaica’s Caribbean neighbours, Trinidad and Tobago will also be in Paris this summer. The quartet of Taejha Badal, Reese Webster, Reyare Thomas and Leah Bertrand finished second in 43.54 to advance as automatic qualifiers to the Olympic Games.
Italy, who won the first heat in 42.60 and second-place finishers Côte d'Ivoire (42.63) as well as Nigeria (42.71), winners of heat three and Switzerland (42.75) are also off to the Olympic Games.
The Bahamas and Jamaica book 4x400m Mixed Relay spots in Paris
The Bahamas and Jamaica rebounded at the World Athletics Relays in the Bahamas, securing their places at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris this summer during round two of the 4x400m mixed relay heats on Sunday.
After a disappointing performance on Saturday, the Bahamas bounced back with a spectacular showing on Sunday, setting a world-leading time of 3:12.81 in the first heat. The Bahamian quartet of Steven Gardiner, Alonzo Russell, Shania Adderley, and Shaunae Miller-Uibo delivered a stellar performance, fending off tough competition from Jamaica, Japan and South Africa, to clinch victory and set a new national record in the process.
Jamaica also sealed their Olympic berth by finishing second in the heat with a time of 3:14.49, showcasing their strength in relay events with the quartet of Zandrian Barnes, Roshawn Clarke, Leah Anderson, and Janieve Russell.
In the subsequent heats, Germany emerged victorious in the second heat with a time of 3:13.85, securing their place in Paris. Switzerland also booked their Olympic spot by finishing closely behind Germany in a national record time of 3:14.12.
Great Britain and Northern Ireland secured their tickets to Paris by winning the third heat with a time of 3:12.99, followed closely by Ukraine in 3:14.49, earning the second qualifying spot from that heat.
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