Paris 2024 Olympics - Athletics - Women's 800m Final - Stade de France, Saint-Denis, France - August 05, 2024. Keely Hodgkinson of Britain celebrates after winning gold REUTERS/Dylan Martinez
PARIS (Reuters) - Britain's Keely Hodgkinson produced a command performance to win the Olympic 800 metres gold medal on Monday, crossing the line with tears in her eyes to claim her first global title.
The 22-year-old held her nerve to see off Ethiopia's Tsige Duguma and Kenya's Mary Moraa, taking the lead halfway through the first lap and unleashing a fierce kick in the final straight to finish in one minute 56.72 seconds.
Hodgkinson had arrived in Paris on a high and was heavy favourite to win gold. She set a new personal best of 1:54.61 in London three weeks ago, a result that made her the sixth-fastest woman of all time over two laps.
"It's something that I've dreamed of so much it hasn't actually sunk in yet," Hodgkinson told reporters. "The crowd was just absolutely incredible, it felt like a home Olympics for me. It just made the moment super special and I'm super happy."
Duguma won silver in a stunning Olympic debut, with world champion Moraa taking bronze.
Hodgkinson, who wore a golden plastic crown for her post-race interviews, won silver in Tokyo when she was 19 and finished runner-up in the 2022 and 2023 world championships.
"I have worked really hard for the last year and I think you can see how much it meant to me when I crossed the line," she said.
"I trusted myself, I could feel Mary coming at me down the back straight but I showed composure."
It was also a remarkable race for 23-year-old Duguma who edged out a fading Moraa to finish in a personal best 1:57.15.
Duguma burst on to the world stage in March when she won the 800 at the world indoor championships in Glasgow.
"For me, it was silver," she said.
Moraa was on Hodgkinson's shoulder for most of the race but could not match her in the last 100 metres and was overtaken by Duguma, with Shafiqua Maloney of St Vincent and the Grenadines nipping at her heels.
The Kenyan took bronze with 1:57.42, three-tenths of a second behind, and embraced Hodgkinson warmly after the finish.
The race was missing reigning Olympic champion Athing Mu, who failed to qualify after falling in the final at the U.S. Olympic Trials. Mu, Moraa and Hodgkinson filled the podiums at the last two world championships.
(Reporting by Helen Reid, editing by Ed Osmond)
