It is a tribute to Hodgkinson’s maturity and character that, even at this stage in her career, she is expected to win every race she contests.
The ‘big three’ have dominated recent global podiums, but until Monday Hodgkinson was the only one still yet to triumph.
It was Mu who denied Hodgkinson in Tokyo, and again by 0.08 seconds at the 2022 worlds in Eugene, before Moraa beat both athletes in 2023 to upgrade her 2022 bronze to gold.
But that series of near misses has only served to intensify the tenacious Hodgkinson’s determination.
Rather than demoralise, it has driven her on in pursuit of perfection, with this her ninth international medal.
Hodgkinson has rarely relented since first making headlines by breaking a 17-year under-20 indoor 800m world record at the start of 2021, before securing her Olympic debut where she broke Kelly Holmes’ 1995 British record.
She asserted herself further as gold medal favourite in Paris by improving her personal best to one minute 54.61 seconds at the London Diamond League in June, becoming the sixth-fastest woman in history.
Having made that golden promise to herself in Budapest, Hodgkinson kept her word in Paris.
“Keely was ready for it, she had to race smart. It was so tense, but she delivered,” Denise Lewis said on BBC TV.
“To hear those words, ‘Olympic champion’, when it rings through her ears, that feeling, that moment, that will live on forever in her head.
“It is that feeling of relief. That feeling is just so sweet, it’s so amazing.”
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