Since 2019, Hodgkinson has educated with coaches Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows in Manchester.
Meadows, a former worldwide runner, was in France to observe her protege take nearly a second off the 800m indoor file, set by Slovenia’s Jolanda Ceplak nearly 24 years in the past.
“She truly mentioned to me the day earlier than: ‘clearly I do know I’ll get it’,” mentioned Meadows.
“There had been so many benchmarks we measure in coaching, we had little doubt that she would do it.
“Her largest worry was to set a world file, however be dissatisfied with the time. She mentioned ‘what if I can not smile? What if I’ve received the world file, and everybody’s so excited, and I believe, oh that was garbage. I may have gone quicker’?”
The date – 19 February 2026 – had lengthy been set within the diary by Meadows and Hodgkinson given the monitor in Lievin is notoriously quick.
“Lievin has had plenty of world information over time, and we form of thought ‘ what, let’s go along with the statistics’,” Meadows mentioned.
“We’re solely most likely going to get one alternative throughout this indoor season to go for it. So that is the occasion that we picked, and that is the date we have actually had etched in our minds the final three months.”
“I’ve received to say, the time she did was the naked minimal of what she was proud of,” Meadows added.
“She positively would have favored to run quicker, and there was positively half a second, possibly even as much as one second in these legs.”
