Kelly Hodgkinson: How the Olympic champion broke the world indoor 800m record

Since 2019, Hodgkinson has trained with coaches Trevor Pinter and Jenny Meadows in Manchester.

Meadows, a former international runner, was in France to watch her student shave nearly one second off the indoor 800m record, set by Slovenian Jolanda Ceplac almost 24 years ago.

“She actually said to me the other day, ‘Obviously I know I’m going to get it,’” Meadows said.

“There were a lot of standards that we measured in training, and we had no doubt that she would do it.

“Her biggest fear was setting a world record, but she was disappointed with the time. ‘What if I can’t smile?’ she said. What if I got the world record, and everyone was so excited, I thought that was bullshit. “I could have gone faster.”

The date – 19 February 2026 – was long ago fixed in Meadows and Hodgkinson’s diaries due to the track at Leven being so fast.

“Levin has set a lot of world records over the years, and we kind of thought, ‘You know what, let’s start with the stats,’” Meadows said.

“We’ll probably only get one opportunity during this indoor season to do that. So this is the event that we chose, and this is the date that we’ve really seared into our minds over the last three months.”

“I have to say the time she did was the bare minimum that she was happy with,” Meadows added.

“She definitely wanted to run faster, and there was definitely half a second, maybe even a second in those legs.”