- Author, Harry Poole
- Role, BBC Sport journalist
Keely Hodgkinson defended her European 800m title with a dominant victory despite struggling with illness, as Great Britain also won women’s 4x100m relay gold on the final night of action in Rome.
Hodgkinson, 22, led throughout and held off her rivals in the closing stages to win in one minute 58.65 seconds.
However, following her victory the Olympic and two-time world silver medallist revealed she had become unwell a day earlier.
“Sometimes you’ve just got to find a way to win,” Hodgkinson told BBC Sport.
“I wanted to go out and get a good time today but I’m happy with the win. I think I would have been disappointed if I didn’t try.”
In a golden conclusion to the six-day championships for the British team, the women’s 4x100m relay quartet featuring Dina Asher-Smith, Desiree Henry, Amy Hunt and Daryll Neita also triumphed.
Led off by 100m champion Asher-Smith and brought home by 200m silver medallist Neita, they took victory in 41.91secs, ahead of France and the Netherlands.
Those golds lifted the British team to third in the medal table, with four golds and 13 medals in total as the European Championships concluded in the Italian capital.
Hodgkinson ‘ready for huge opportunity’ in Paris
This was Hodgkinson’s second major title following success in Munich two years ago and comes before she targets a first global title at Paris 2024.
With both a personal best and season’s best time more than three seconds faster than anyone else in the final, she could hardly have lined up as a stronger favourite to defend her European crown.
While she did not win by the margin perhaps expected – having run a world-leading time of 1:55.78 to beat world champion Mary Moraa in Eugene this year – Hodgkinson always appeared in control as she collected the eighth major medal of an already stunning senior career, which only started in 2021.
The supremely talented Briton has been pushing the world’s best since contesting her first major championships at the Tokyo Olympics.
Following that stunning breakthrough silver at those Games three years ago and successive world silvers since, Hodgkinson’s eyes are now fixed on gold in Paris, where she is once again expected to battle Moraa and American Olympic champion Athing Mu for global supremacy.
“I’m super excited for Paris. The next seven weeks are going to be incredible,” Hodgkinson said.
“I do believe in the power of manifestation, so it’s obviously something I think about. The Olympic Games are so special, it’s a huge opportunity to change your life and I’m just ready to go for it.”
Slovakia’s Gabriela Gajanova took silver in 1:58.79 and France’s Anais Bourgoin was third in 1:59.30.