Ever since Keely Hodgkinson became Olympic champion two years ago, she has not just taken talk of breaking track’s longest-standing world record in stride but embraced the possibility.
For 43 years Jarmila Kratochvilova’s time of 1:53.28 has stood unbothered, a mark that even World Athletics president Sebastian Coe has previously said he is wishing out of existence following decades of innuendo and suspicion around it being clean.
Now, at last, eclipsing it feels inevitable; although in the space of three months Hodgkinson is no longer the favourite to do so.
The summer of 2026 has belonged to Audrey Werro, irrespective of whether the Swiss can round off a perfect season at this weekend’s inaugural Ultimate Championships in Budapest.
And while only a fool would write off Hodgkinson becoming the fastest of all time in 2027, the latest rival to have demoted the British superstar to a major championship silver medal seems the most likely.
Werro has taken to the start line 15 times this summer and won 14, the exception being tripped when leading the European Championship semi-finals, an incident that saw her advanced by the judges.
Three of the 800m outings are among the five fastest times ever recorded and her slowest time, heats discounted, would have been enough for bronze in Paris.
“She’s put together one of the best seasons in the women’s 800m ever,” Hodgkinson reckoned this week. It may well be among the greatest across the entire sport.
Lift off arrived in Stockholm on 7 June when Werro ran 1:53.98 and the immediately accepted narrative was that Hodgkinson had been shocked by a Swiss upstart. That Hodgkinson ran a PB of 1:54.33, placing her sixth on the all-time list, did not receive adequate praise.
“Honestly, I’m not that disappointed,” she said at the time. “I’ve mentioned the world record, and, to get down to the times that we’re talking about, you can’t do it by yourself. So I think this will actually be a pivotal moment.”
Fourteen weeks have passed but it already seems an age. Werro has since become European champion and lowered her time twice to 1:53.70 while Hodgkinson has raced less frequently for frustrating reasons.
A fall when cooling down from a session produced two severe gashes to her knee, interrupting preparations to go quicker again at the Prefontaine Classic and London Diamond League in July. She then ran well at the Europeans – just not quite well enough coming off the final bend – and has been absent since owing to undefined issues that she said will be discussed after this weekend.
Alongside, or rather right behind, their duel has been Femke Broeders-Bol’s emergence as a bonafide contender. The 400m hurdles specialist was expected to be good. Just not as competitive this quickly.
While a first win against either Werro or Hodgkinson still eludes the Dutchwoman, she has been incrementally closing the gap, winning bronze at Alexander Stadium and her deficit to Werro in last weekend’s Diamond League final was only 0.06secs.
This time next year it is conceivable that Broeders-Bol is the top operator because there is so much to improve from an aerobic perspective for an athlete whose anaerobic engine is superior.
On longer training runs her pace has routinely been close to nine minutes per mile – a speed that many hobby joggers would claim was slow – and her threshold pace is around seven minutes per mile. Both are ripe for levelling up, so too the deceptively languid arm carriage that has made it look like she is jogging to a personal best that now stands at 1:54.71, making her the ninth fastest woman ever.
Talk among many coaches is how the event is being reclassified as a long sprint rather than the shortest of endurance events – a theory that leans towards Broeders-Bol becoming the record holder since her 400m PB of 49.17sec is significantly faster than her rivals. Hodgkinson lowered her mark earlier this summer to 51.14sec, trailing Werro’s 50.80sec.
Beyond the data and benefits of nutritional and technological advancements, though, this is above all a case of phenomenal athletes making each other faster.
In stark contrast to the soap opera that is the men’s 1500m, the Ultimate Championship’s other must-watch battle, there is no shortage of respect and admiration between the trio. Hodgkinson was among those urging Broeders-Bol to change event last year and she has regularly praised Werro despite the frustrations of second-place finishes.
Iron sharpens iron, as the documentary series released by World Athletics to preview this weekend’s action put it.
Still, the chances of the record falling in Budapest are reduced by the absence of pacers and the season’s top priority coming a month ago. While Werro and Bol have continued racing since the showdown in Birmingham, it has been a long season and the majority of stars competing this weekend will be tired.
Hodgkinson’s true shape is a mystery to those outside her circle. It was only a week ago that she decided her condition was good enough to compete in Budapest, adding another layer of intrigue to an event carrying the biggest prize pot in the sport’s history.
Yet irrespective of what happens between now and Sunday, this three-way rivalry could last for years. Hodgkinson is 24, Werro 22 and Broeders-Bol being 26 must be contextualised next to this being her rookie campaign in the event.
The final chapter of a season that has become both more predictable and captivating may well contain a twist on Sunday. Either way an event with a troubled, complex past, has been revolutionised with further progress assured.
