<p>In the absence of Athing Mu, the fellow teen sensation who beat her to Olympic gold in Tokyo seven months ago, Keely Hodgkinson will start as the woman to beat over four laps of the Stark Arena &ndash; or the young woman to beat, rather.</p>
<p>The burgeoning Briton turned 20 on 3 March, also the 20th anniversary of the 1:55.82 world indoor record Slovenia&rsquo;s Jolanda Ceplak set in her duel with Stephanie Graf at the 2002 European Indoor Championships in Vienna.</p>
<p>Hodgkinson arrives in Belgrade with not just the world&rsquo;s fastest time in 2022 but the fastest since that day in 2002, when Jenny Meadows (one half-of Hodgkinson&rsquo;s husband-and-wife coaching team, together with Trevor Painter) sat watching agog in the stands after exiting in the 800m heats on her senior championship debut.</p>
<p>At the Muller Indoor Grand Prix World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold event in Birmingham on 19 February, Hodgkinson destroyed a world-class field with a stunning victory in 1:57.20, breaking Jemma Reekie&rsquo;s British indoor record and moving to sixth on the world indoor all-time list.</p>
<p>The 2021 Diamond League winner&rsquo;s only other indoor race this year has been a 52.42 400m PB as runner up to Jessie Knight at the British Indoor Championships, suggesting that she has the wherewithal to go one better than Meadows, the silver medallist in 2010, and become the first British winner of the world indoor women&rsquo;s 800m title.</p>
<p>The impressive field, however, is not short of potential contenders. It includes eight of the 10 fastest women in 2022 and, notably, all four who have cracked two minutes since the turn of the year: Hodgkinson, Jamaican Natoya Goule, Uganda&rsquo;s world champion Halimah Nakaayi and Australia&rsquo;s Catriona Bisset (1:59.46).</p>
<p>Goule, eighth in the Olympic final in Tokyo, clocked a national record of 1:58.46 in Lievin ahead of Nakaayi&rsquo;s 1:58.58 Ugandan record, but was a well-beaten third in Birmingham behind Hodgkinson and Bissett, who set an Australian record 1:59.46 on her indoor debut. The Jamaican did, however, boast a 4-2 record outdoors over the emerging Brit in 2021, finishing behind her in Tokyo and in the Diamond League final.</p>
<p>Nobody will be fuelled with greater motivation than Ajee Wilson. The US runner took silver in Portland in 2016 and again in Birmingham in 2018. She failed to make the cut for the Olympic final in Tokyo, bowing out at the semi-final stage. Her best this year is only 2:01.38 but she has won all four of her 800m races and has also clocked a brisk 1:25.29 for 600m</p>
<p>Ethiopia&rsquo;s Habitam Alemu is also a pedigree performer, having placed fourth in Birmingham in 2018 and sixth in the Olympic final last year. She has yet to race 800m indoors in 2022 but was fourth over 1500m in Torun in 4:02.52.</p>
<p><strong>Simon Turnbull for World Athletics</strong></p>

World Athletics Indoor Championships

A look at the contenders in the women's 800m at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22.

World 800m leader Hodgkinson aims to become world indoor champion in Belgrade

<p>There are few, if any, events less predictable than the men&rsquo;s 800m right now, and that&rsquo;s exemplified by the lack of a clear favourite in the four-lap event at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22.</p>
<p>For the first time since 2017, the indoor season has (almost) passed by without any athlete breaking 1:45, though there are seven men in the field in Belgrade who have broken 1:46 this year. Any one of them, in addition to a cluster of others, could walk away with gold.</p>
<p>Perhaps the best place to start in search of a potential champion is with Britain&rsquo;s Elliot Giles, who took victory on the World Athletics Indoor Tour after winning in Madrid earlier this month in 1:45.43. Giles is the only athlete in the field to have run below 1:44 indoors, but despite his obvious class he has yet to win a global medal, finishing fourth at the last edition of this championships in 2018.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I know I&rsquo;m strong and if I get to the final, I know I can hold my position,&rdquo; he said after that race in Madrid, where he edged Mariano Garcia to victory. 24-year-old Spaniard Garcia is another who&rsquo;s sure to be in contention again in Belgrade.</p>
<p>He&rsquo;s the quickest in the field this year with the 1:45.12 national record he ran to win on Staten Island, USA, last month, though he was beaten at the Spanish Championships by Alvaro de Arriba, an astute indoor racer who will look to add the world indoor title to the European indoor gold he won in 2019.</p>
<p>Kenya won gold and silver in the men&rsquo;s 800m at the Tokyo Olympics but with neither athlete present in Belgrade, their hopes rest on Collins Kipruto and Noah Kibet. Kipruto is the quicker of them this year, clocking 1:45.39 to defeat Giles in Birmingham, but Kibet scored a big win in Lievin last month and could also be dangerous.</p>
<p>The US could also have two medal contenders if their duo successfully navigates Friday&rsquo;s heats, which is notoriously no easy task. Bryce Hoppel looks the strongest of them, the 2019 indoor and outdoor NCAA champion &ndash; who was fourth in the world final in 2019 &ndash; ultra impressive when winning the US indoor title in 1:45.30 last month. Runner-up there was Isaiah Harris, who booked his place in Belgrade with a season&rsquo;s best of 1:46.30.</p>
<p>Sweden&rsquo;s Andreas Kramer has turned in strong runs on the circuit this season, most notably his runner-up finish in Torun in 1:45.71, while Eliott Crestan set a Belgian indoor record recently with 1:46.11 to win his national title and he could also feature.</p>
<p>Morocco&rsquo;s Mostafa Smaili has made the past two world indoor finals and he could make it a triple here, while Canada&rsquo;s Marco Arop, Ireland&rsquo;s Mark English, and Tony van Diepen of the Netherlands are all dangerous on their day, as is Bosnia and Herzogovina&rsquo;s Amel Tuka, who was well below his best when clocking 1:47.68 in Torun last month.</p>
<p>Algeria&rsquo;s Djamel Sejati could also feature, having won all three races he&rsquo;s contested this year, most recently with an indoor PB of 1:46.28 in Sabadell, Spain.</p>
<p>With the field set to be reduced to just six on Friday evening, there&rsquo;s every chance that potential champions will fall at the first hurdle, which will make the heats as riveting as the final itself. Once that final six is set, it&rsquo;s just about anyone&rsquo;s guess who goes home with gold.</p>
<p><strong>Cathal Dennehy for World Athletics</strong></p>

A look at the contenders in the men's 800m at the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22.

Men's 800m looks to be wide open in Belgrade

<p>Keely Hodgkinson might be motivated most by medals, but the 20-year-old knows that running records &ndash; and relishing rivalries &ndash; will help her to get to them.</p>
<p>&ldquo;From my career, I want to get as many medals as I can &ndash; I think that&rsquo;s how you become one of the greatest ever,&rdquo; says the British 800m standout. &ldquo;Records are really nice, but they don&rsquo;t always last, so I think medals are where you can really make a difference and write your name in the history book.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Her campaign on both fronts has started strongly. Now the British record-holder both indoors and outdoors, the 1:55.88 that Hodgkinson ran in Tokyo secured her Olympic silver on her global championship debut and improved a national mark that had been set by double 2004 Olympic champion Kelly Holmes in 1995. Her next aim, fresh from a 1:57.20 indoors in Birmingham, is to get gold at the <strong>World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22</strong>, where she has been selected for the 800m and the 4x400m.</p>
<p>&ldquo;My favourite thing to do is compete at championships, when there&rsquo;s a bit of pressure and more at stake,&rdquo; adds the British 400m silver medallist. &ldquo;I like to go out there and do what I know I can do and come away with medals. That&rsquo;s the goal.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/622751b7b57cf3dc7d4ddff4.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /><em>Hodgkinson runs 1:57.20 to win the 800m at the World Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Birmingham (&copy; Getty Images)</em></p>
<p><br />Enjoyment is key and there's no weight of expectation, as Hodgkinson instead embraces it. The support from her team, which includes coach Trevor Painter and world medallist Jenny Meadows in a relationship she describes as &ldquo;like a second family&rdquo;, is hugely important. Particularly after a winter that was interrupted by injury.</p>
<p>After recovering from an achilles issue before Christmas, Hodgkinson went on a training camp in South Africa and tore her quad. No longer able to open her 2022 season at the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Karlsruhe as originally planned, Hodgkinson refocused on the M&uuml;ller Indoor Grand Prix in Birmingham. Once there, she became the sixth-fastest ever indoor women&rsquo;s 800m runner, and had it not been for the injuries and missed training, Meadows believes her charge could have been in &ldquo;world record territory&rdquo;.</p>
<p>Turning 20 last week (3), Hodgkinson was coincidentally born on the exact date that the world indoor record of 1:55.82 was set. Should she win gold in Belgrade later this month, Hodgkinson &ndash; at 20 years and 17 days &ndash; would become the youngest women&rsquo;s 800m champion in World Indoor Championships history.</p>
<p>&ldquo;She was still in brilliant shape (in Birmingham),&rdquo; Meadows told the <em>Telegraph</em>. &ldquo;But honestly, I cannot tell you where she looked like she was going to be &ndash; it&rsquo;s actually quite scary.&rdquo;</p>
<p>There is no fear from Hodgkinson when it comes to facing her rivals, however, and the depth in her event both internationally and domestically has spurred Hodgkinson on. She won last year&rsquo;s British outdoor title ahead of Jemma Reekie and Laura Muir to claim her first global championship team place at any level, and once at the Olympic Games she finished second to her fellow 19-year-old Athing Mu, who earlier in the year had superseded Hodgkinson as the world indoor U20 800m record-holder.<br /><br /></p>
<div style="padding: 15px 20px 5px 20px; border: 2px solid #69d7e1;">
<h2>Hodgkinson and her rivals</h2>
How Hodgkinson stacks up against the women she's set to face in Belgrade.<br />
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;" border="1">
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<div align="center">
<h3 align="center"><br /><img style="width: 140px; height: 140px; border-radius: 50%; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://media.aws.iaaf.org/media/Square/7fa2a711-788d-4ade-b44a-1ecc46c095da.jpg?cachebuster=0211293c-a2b3-40f7-a3ba-13ee252723df" alt="Keely Hodgkinson" /><br />Keely Hodgkinson</h3>
</div>
</td>
<td style="width: 25%;" width="25%">
<div align="center">
<h3 align="center"><br /><img style="width: 140px; height: 140px; border-radius: 50%; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://media.aws.iaaf.org/athletes/14431159.jpg" alt="Halimah Nakaayi" /><br />Halimah Nakaayi</h3>
</div>
</td>
<td style="width: 25%;" width="25%">
<div align="center">
<h3 align="center"><br /><img style="width: 140px; height: 140px; border-radius: 50%; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://media.aws.iaaf.org/athletes/14285696.jpg" alt="Natoya Goule" /><br />Natoya Goule</h3>
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</td>
<td style="width: 25%;" width="25%">
<div align="center">
<h3 align="center"><br /><img style="width: 140px; height: 140px; border-radius: 50%; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://media.aws.iaaf.org/athletes/14463325.jpg" alt="Catriona Bisset" /><br />Catriona Bisset</h3>
</div>
</td>
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<td style="width: 25%;" width="25%">
<div align="center"><strong>Country:</strong> Great Britain &amp; NI</div>
</td>
<td style="width: 25%;" width="25%">
<div align="center"><strong>Country: </strong>Uganda</div>
</td>
<td style="width: 25%;" width="25%">
<div align="center"><strong>Country:</strong> Jamaica</div>
</td>
<td style="width: 25%;" width="25%">
<div align="center"><strong>Country: </strong>Australia</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 25%;">
<div align="center"><strong>Born:</strong> 3 Mar 2002</div>
</td>
<td style="width: 25%;">
<div align="center"><strong>Born:</strong> 16 Oct 1994</div>
</td>
<td style="width: 25%;">
<div align="center"><strong>Born:</strong> 30 Mar 1991</div>
</td>
<td style="width: 25%;">
<div align="center"><strong>Born:</strong> 1 Mar 1994</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 25%;">
<div align="center"><strong>Outdoor PB:</strong> 1:55.88 NR (2021)</div>
</td>
<td style="width: 25%;">
<div align="center"><strong>Outdoor PB:</strong> 1:58.03 NR (2021)</div>
</td>
<td style="width: 25%;">
<div align="center"><strong>Outdoor PB:</strong> 1:56.15 NR (2018)</div>
</td>
<td style="width: 25%;">
<div align="center"><strong>Outdoor PB:</strong> 1:58.09 AR (2021)</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 25%;">
<div align="center"><strong>Indoor PB:</strong> 1:57.20 NR (2022)</div>
</td>
<td style="width: 25%;">
<div align="center"><strong>Indoor PB:</strong> 1:58.58 NR (2022)</div>
</td>
<td style="width: 25%;">
<div align="center"><strong>Indoor PB:</strong> 1:58.46 NR (2022)</div>
</td>
<td style="width: 25%;">
<div align="center"><strong>Indoor PB:</strong> 1:59.46 AR (2022)</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 25%;">
<div align="center"><strong>Major achievements:<br /></strong>Olympic silver (2021), Diamond League champion (2021), European indoor champion (2021)</div>
</td>
<td style="width: 25%;">
<div align="center"><strong>Major achievements:<br /></strong>World champion (2019), All-African Games bronze (2019)</div>
</td>
<td style="width: 25%;">
<div align="center"><strong>Major achievements:<br /></strong>Pan American Games champion (2019), NACAC Championships silver (2018), Commonwealth Games bronze (2018), NCAA champion (2013)</div>
</td>
<td style="width: 25%;">
<div align="center"><strong>Major achievements:<br /></strong>Oceanian champion (2019), World University Games champion (2019)</div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
<p><br />Now, the Briton is joined at the top of the indoor season list by Jamaican record-holder Natoya Goule, Uganda&rsquo;s world champion Halimah Nakaayi and Australia&rsquo;s Oceanian record-holder Catriona Bisset, who have all dipped under two minutes for the four-lap event.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It keeps you on your toes,&rdquo; Hodgkinson smiles. &ldquo;When you see other people (running well) &ndash; it&rsquo;s good, it&rsquo;s going to push me on: &lsquo;I know I can do that&rsquo;.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I like having those head-to-heads. We&rsquo;ve had a few times when we have finished neck and neck, me and Natoya, and I get on with her really well, as well. So, it&rsquo;s fun to race her and see what others can do.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Hodgkinson won their sole clash so far in 2022 in Birmingham, while in 2021 their head-to-head record stood 4-2 in Goule&rsquo;s favour but Hodgkinson&rsquo;s advantage came on the biggest stages &ndash; at the Olympic Games and the Wanda Diamond League final, where Hodgkinson claimed the overall title.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I definitely got a lot of confidence from last year,&rdquo; Hodgkinson explains. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t really feel any pressure, I just feel like I want to go out there and do my best in every race. I want to be consistent in the bigger races, racing the bigger girls, and just stamp my authority down.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I expect more of myself now,&rdquo; she adds. &ldquo;I want to be more consistent in Diamond League races &ndash; I didn&rsquo;t actually win one Diamond League, apart from the only one that mattered!&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/62275326492005aba2adabd5.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /><em>The Tokyo Olympic Games women's 800m final&nbsp;(&copy; Getty Images)</em></p>
<p><br />But that&rsquo;s not her only goal for the outdoor season, where she also has the World Athletics Championships Oregon22, the European Championships in Munich and the Commonwealth Games on home soil in Birmingham to target.</p>
<p>&ldquo;The Worlds and the Commonwealths are the priority for the summer and the Europeans, we'll see,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;If I'm fit and healthy, then why not? I'm happy to do the relays in the summer as well, if I feel ok.&rdquo;</p>
<p>And the outdoor season will again give her the chance to take on her US rival, Mu.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Hopefully it stems for a good competitive 10-15 years ahead and faster times on the horizon,&rdquo; Hodgkinson said after finishing second behind her fellow teenager Mu in Tokyo.</p>
<p>A medal-filled 10-15 years, if Hodgkinson has her way.</p>
<p><strong>Jess Whittington for World Athletics</strong></p>

The Olympic 800m silver medallist targets another major medal in Belgrade.

Hodgkinson homes in on history

<p>Adam Kszczot, Poland&rsquo;s five-time world 800m medallist, announced his retirement from competitive athletics on Monday (14).</p>
<p>&ldquo;Something ends, something begins. I decided to end my professional career,&rdquo; said the 32-year-old, who will make a few final indoor meeting appearances before hanging up his spikes.</p>
<p>"I couldn't find a better date than this to talk about my professional love, and thus my passion, which is running," he added, in his retirement statement posted on social media on Valentine&rsquo;s Day.</p>
<p>"We met in 2005 and not long after, in 2007, we decided to become more than friends. We've achieved a lot together over the years, both ups and downs, but we mostly walked with our heads held high."</p>
<p>Among Kszczot&rsquo;s five global medals is the world indoor title he won in Birmingham in 2018, which he added to the indoor silver and bronze medals he claimed in 2014 and 2010 respectively, plus the two outdoor silver medals secured in 2015 and 2017.<br /><br /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ooxVkPhVaNY" width="100%" height="475" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p><br />As well as his world achievements, Kszczot &ndash;&nbsp;affectionately known as 'the professor' in Poland for his 800m tactical skill &ndash; won six European titles: three indoors and three outdoors.</p>
<p>Kszczot's first steps in the sport came in cross country running while at school and by 2006 he had moved to the track and decided to specialise in the 800m.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It was only in 2007 that I realised athletics could be a possible career choice,&rdquo; <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="https://worldathletics.org/news/series/adam-kszczot-poland-800m2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kszczot said</a></strong></span>.</p>
<p>That year he claimed bronze at the European U20 Championships in Hengelo and 12 months later he finished fourth at the World U20 Championships on home soil, in Bydgoszcz.<br /><br /></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/3b0ad76a-b930-4c18-a88e-a926aec5847d.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /><em><span style="text-align: start;">Adam Kszczot celebrates his silver medal win at the 2015 World Championships&nbsp;</span>(&copy; Getty Images)</em></p>
<p><br />In 2010 he kicked off his collection of global medals with indoor bronze in Doha, achieving a full set with his silver on home soil in Sopot in 2014 and gold in Birmingham four years later.</p>
<p>In the meantime, he also became a two-time world silver medallist outdoors, thanks to his runner-up finishes in Beijing in 2015 and London in 2017.</p>
<p>The 1:44.57 he ran in Lievin in 2012 remains the Polish indoor record and places him 10th on the world indoor all-time list, while his outdoor best stands at 1:43.30 from Rieti the year before.</p>
<p>He also formed part of the Polish teams to secure two second place finishes and one third place in the 4x800m at the World Relays between 2014 and 2017.</p>
<p>Following his running career, Kszczot now looks forward to spending more time with his family and announced plans to release a book and share his experience with the next generation in athletics.</p>
<p><strong>World Athletics</strong></p>

Poland’s five-time world 800m medallist has announced his retirement from competitive athletics.

World indoor champion Kszczot announces retirement

<p><span lang="EN-US">For all its strength across the sporting spectrum, Mexico has had scant success of late on the track when it comes to major championships. At the Tokyo Olympics, the nation of 128 million fielded full teams across the marathons and race walks, but had just one male competitor on the track.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">That athlete was Jesus Tonatiu Lopez, a 24-year-old whose Games came to an end in the semifinals of the 800m, a tactical mistake costing him precious fractions of a second and leaving him wondering what might have been. Lopez finished third, just 0.03 behind Emmanuel Korir of Kenya and 0.17 behind Patryk Dobek of Poland &ndash; who went on to win gold and bronze respectively.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">&ldquo;I cried,&rdquo; says Lopez, who made his 2022 debut at the&nbsp;</span>Millrose Games, a <strong>World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold</strong> meeting, on Saturday (29). &ldquo;I felt very frustrated. I knew maybe I could be in that race.&rdquo;</p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">Over the coming months, he&rsquo;ll have ample opportunity to make amends, with Lopez targeting the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22 in March and the World Athletics Championships Eugene 22 in July.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not looking for a big achievement,&rdquo; he says of Belgrade. &ldquo;To compete with the best in the world is going to be helpful; I&rsquo;ll get a lot of experience. In Eugene, I want to make the final. Obviously I want a medal, but I try to not stress myself with (such a) specific objective.&rdquo;</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">On the build-up to Tokyo, the medal question was often put to him by Mexican journalists, and Lopez did his best to play down expectations.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t like to talk like that,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I just want to run the best I can. I&rsquo;m going to do my best, but of course with my best race I can get a medal.&rdquo;</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">The past 12 months have taught him as much.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">Through 2020 and 2021 Lopez has taken many small steps that, ultimately, led to one giant leap into world-class territory. In May last year he lowered his national record to 1:44.40 and then two months later, he hacked almost a full second off that mark, clocking 1:43.44 in Marietta, USA.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">It sounds strange, but Lopez was actually happier after the first race. The reason?&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">&ldquo;When I ran 1:43, that same day was (the) Monaco (Diamond League meeting), and (Nijel) Amos ran 1:42.91,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I wanted to be there, so I was frustrated. I thought I could run faster.&rdquo;<br /><br /></span></p>
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<p><span lang="EN-US"><br /></span>What led to his breakthrough? Lopez&rsquo;s story is similar to many other athletes who had their worlds turned upside down in 2020, forced to reassess his approach, rebuild his fitness and return better than ever once racing resumed.</p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">&ldquo;I think the pandemic helped me,&rdquo; he says.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">In 2019 he set a Mexican record of 1:45.03 shortly before the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, but he was struck down with injury in the heats at that championships and failed to finish.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">&ldquo;In 2020 our philosophy was to get better in the things we do well and fix the things we don&rsquo;t do well,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;It was to get better in our weaknesses. I was not giving it everything I had (before) and I felt I needed to give a little more to get better.&rdquo;</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">Lopez is a full-time athlete these days and trains in Hermosillo, a city of 800,000 people, located in the state of Sonora in northwest Mexico. It&rsquo;s also where he grew up, first finding athletics at the age of seven, brought to it by his parents, Claudia Alvarez and Ramon Enrique.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">At the time, he was playing American football, putting his speed to good use as a running back, and in those early years he &ldquo;didn&rsquo;t really care so much&rdquo; about athletics. His parents, though, made sure he stayed the course.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">&ldquo;They obligated me to train,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;When I was a boy I wanted to (play) American football, soccer, but they were like, &lsquo;no, you&rsquo;re going to be a track and field athlete.&rsquo;&rdquo;</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">There was no athletics background in his family, but his coach knew talent when he saw it. In 2013 Lopez &ndash; then 15 &ndash; competed at the World U18 Championships in Donetsk, Ukraine, and it left an indelible mark.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">&ldquo;I realised: I want to do this all my life,&rdquo; he says.&nbsp;<br /><br /></span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US"><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61f7f3055b762a9e702db260.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /><br /><em>Jesus Tonatiu Lopez competes at the 2016 World U20 Championships in Bydgoszcz (&copy; Getty Images)</em></span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US"><br />At 16 he lowered his best to 1:50.33, and competed at the World U20 Championships in Eugene, USA. At 17 he was running 1:48.13. At 18: 1:46.57.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">In 2017 he made his first World Championships at senior level, competing in London before going on to win the World University Games title in Taipei. By then he was a student at the University of Sonora, studying physical culture and sports and training under Conrado Soto, who still coaches him today.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">Lopez would rise early, training at 6am before his classes, steadily progressing each month, each year. The sporting and academic demands meant he wasn&rsquo;t able to work on the side, but support from his parents &ndash; who started him out on this path &ndash; has never wavered.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">&ldquo;Even with not much money, they gave me what I needed to put me in the city where I need to compete,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;The first years were very difficult but thanks to them I was able to be consistent from year to year. They were also always there for me for emotional support. All this, I owe to my parents.&rdquo;</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">As he told his story, Lopez was sitting trackside in the Armory, New York City, ahead of the Millrose Games. He&rsquo;d never raced on a 200m indoor track before but Lopez ran well to finish sixth in 1:48.60.</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">&ldquo;It was a very fierce competition but I&rsquo;m satisfied,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;I can get better and I know what I need to do to be better next time.&rdquo;</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">Given his pedigree as a teenager, he had a range of options available to study in the US but Lopez overlooked them in favour of staying at home. &ldquo;My coach was great, I had my family, my home,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t need to go to other places when I have everything in Hermosillo.&rdquo;</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">Growing up, he had few compatriots to look up to who were mixing it at the top level in middle-distance events, but Lopez is hoping his presence on that stage &ndash; both now and in the future &ndash; will inspire many others to follow.&nbsp;</span></p>
<p><span lang="EN-US">&ldquo;I always wanted that,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;Every competition, I want to have people by my side. It took me a long time to believe I could compete with the (world&rsquo;s best), but one year ago I really believed. I can compete with them.&rdquo;</span></p>
<p><strong><span lang="EN-US">Cathal Dennehy for World Athletics</span></strong></p>

The Mexican 800m record-holder is targeting two world championships in 2022.

National record-holder Lopez, on track and making history for Mexico

A look back at the key moments of 2021 in the middle and long distance events

2021 review: middle and long distance

<p>Athing Mu may have won the Female Rising Star honour at the World Athletics Awards 2021, but the US teenage track luminary has already ascended astronomically. Such are her achievements this year &ndash; double Olympic gold among them &ndash; that Mu also earned a nomination for World Female Athlete of the Year.</p>
<p>There&rsquo;s no stopping now, though. With further success to shoot for, the 19-year-old is determined to continue to climb.</p>
<p>With her Olympic 800m and 4x400m wins, world U20 indoor 800m record and North American U20 records at 400m and 800m, Mu gained the Rising Star award ahead of a strong list of contenders, while she joined athletes such as world record-breakers Sifan Hassan, Sydney McLaughlin and Yulimar Rojas, plus eventual winner Elaine Thompson-Herah, in being nominated for World Female Athlete of the Year.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s awesome and I would say it&rsquo;s kind of crazy at the same time,&rdquo; Mu says of her double award nomination. &ldquo;Just getting nominated for the women&rsquo;s Athlete of the Year as a whole was kind of surprising. It was a really big compliment for me. I was proud of being recognised.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<p><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61af3c32626bdb3bbf01adda.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /></p>
<p><br />But that recognition is richly deserved.</p>
<p>Running has been Mu&rsquo;s passion since she stepped on the track at the age of six. The second youngest of seven siblings, she followed them into the sport and ran for Trenton Track Club in New Jersey before joining Texas A&amp;M University to study kinesiology. During her early career, Mu didn&rsquo;t have to look far for sources of inspiration.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I would see Sydney (McLaughlin) and all these records that she was setting while she was in high school, and then there was Ajee Wilson, whose records I was working towards just because I would always see her name whenever I was competing,&rdquo; Mu explains. &ldquo;They were athletes from New Jersey who just put such a mark on the state. For an athlete like me, just to follow their path and try to get to their level, that was definitely something I looked up to.&rdquo;</p>
<p>When it comes to making a mark, Mu did so &ndash; significantly &ndash; herself at the age of just 16. Running 1:23.57 at the US Indoor Championships in 2019, she moved to second on the world indoor all-time list for the less regularly raced 600m, missing the world best by just 0.13. Later that year she improved her 800m PB to 2:01.17 outdoors and ran a 400m PB of 51.98.<br /><br /></p>
<p><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61af3cbdf93b6616e6d558b2.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /></p>
<p><br />While she was unable to build on that in 2020 because of the pandemic, Mu picked up from where she left off at the start of this year. After setting an outright 400m PB of 50.52 indoors on 6 February, three weeks later she ran 1:58.40 for 800m, a world U20 indoor record.</p>
<p>Her record-breaking continued outdoors, with a 1:57.73 800m in her first race of the season improving the North American U20 mark. Three continental U20 400m records followed, as Mu took her best to 49.84, 49.68 and then 49.57 to win the NCAA title.</p>
<p>&ldquo;This is just the beginning,&rdquo; Mu wrote on social media a couple of weeks later, when announcing that she would be turning professional.</p>
<p>Next up was the US Olympic Trials at Hayward Field, where she won the final in a world-leading 1:56.07 to book her place on the Olympic team for Tokyo. Once there, Mu dominated the final and won in 1:55.21, breaking the US senior record which had been held &ndash; coincidentally &ndash; by Wilson since 2017. She led a teenage 1-2, with Britain&rsquo;s Keely Hodgkinson &ndash; a fellow 19-year-old and Rising Star award nominee &ndash; claiming silver in a national record of 1:55.88.<br /><br /></p>
<p><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61af3c87f93b6616e6d558ac.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /></p>
<p><br />Four days later, Mu was back on the track to form part of an impressive 4x400m team alongside 400m hurdles stars McLaughlin and Dalilah Muhammad, plus history&rsquo;s most decorated female track and field Olympian, Allyson Felix. Running the anchor leg, the teenager clocked the fastest split of the race with 48.32, bringing the team home in a winning 3:16.85 &ndash; the fifth-fastest mark in history and the quickest time in the world since 1993.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m blown away by it, because I still haven&rsquo;t really comprehended the whole idea of being an Olympic champion,&rdquo; she says, reflecting on her year. &ldquo;I think about it &ndash; even just being an Olympian as a whole &ndash; but it&rsquo;s still kind of a shock.&rdquo;</p>
<p>And not just an Olympic champion, but a double Olympic champion. &ldquo;It was definitely a dream come true,&rdquo; she smiles. &ldquo;Just being on the 4x400m, first of all, was something I wanted to do the whole season. It is something that I have, I guess, joked about or envisioned after watching multiple 4x400m races and the USA always being dominant. So that was a dream come true, but then for us to have that great line up; I just felt like I was running a very historic race. I was blessed and super excited to be on that, but I am glad, most of all, that I did my part and brought us home!&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<p><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61af3bca6808d5fa78b21b07.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /></p>
<p><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61af3bec6808d5fa78b21b0a.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /></p>
<p><br />After that, she had one race left to run. Back at Hayward Field &ndash; venue for next year&rsquo;s World Athletics Championships Oregon22 &ndash; to compete at the Wanda Diamond League meeting, she clocked another world lead of 1:55.04 to improve her own US record.</p>
<p>&ldquo;It happened quicker than I expected it to,&rdquo; she explains, reflecting on her progress. &ldquo;I went to every single meet just focusing on that meet. The season went by really quickly and by the time Trials came, I again accomplished a goal by making the Olympic team, and then it was the Olympics. It flashed before my eyes.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Just like a shooting star.</p>
<p>&ldquo;A lot of times I get asked, what are my next goals?&rdquo; she adds. &ldquo;And I think about the world record and all those types of things. I think the 800m is moving in a new direction, especially with Keely and I being super young and super competitive with one another, even though we haven&rsquo;t really raced that much this past year. I am just excited because I know when you have good athletes in one race all shooting for the same thing, running with the same determination and everything, we can go pretty far. I definitely believe that in the 800m, we&rsquo;re going to make some history in that event over the coming years.&rdquo;</p>
<p>She intends for that to be the case indoors, too.</p>
<p>&ldquo;When it comes to the next season, I usually like to duplicate what I did the previous season &ndash; so whatever I did last year, I want to do the same or better this upcoming season,&rdquo; Mu says. &ldquo;One of the main goals that I really want to do this upcoming season is the American (indoor) record in the 800m, which is like 0.2 off the time that I ran last year. And I want to get the U20 400m record, since this is my last year of being a junior, so I&rsquo;d like to get those records while I can.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>
<p><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/61af3c49f93b6616e6d558a9.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /></p>
<p><br />While Mu&rsquo;s performances this year, and particularly those in Tokyo, will have inspired many, it was the achievement of Sifan Hassan in claiming two gold medals in the 5000m and 10,000m, plus 1500m bronze, which most impressed Mu herself.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I enjoyed watching Sifan Hassan do her thing, trying to get the triple. That was a lot,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s one of those things where it&rsquo;s like, oh, wow, she is doing that, so doesn&rsquo;t that mean that I can do it too? It was one of those inspiring moments.&rdquo;</p>
<p>So, could it be that next year, at the World Championships on home soil, Mu targets her own treble, in the 400m, 800m and 4x400m?</p>
<p>&ldquo;I would love to but as of right now, I am only thinking about the 800m,&rdquo; she smiles. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ll see about the 4x400m and how it goes again this year. My season hasn&rsquo;t started yet, it&rsquo;s kind of early, so we&rsquo;re going to wait to see how the season progresses.&rdquo;</p>
<p>But one target is certain.</p>
<p>&ldquo;That is the next big goal &ndash; to be 800m world champion,&rdquo; she confirms. &ldquo;Coming off this year, it&rsquo;s another big championship, so may as well go big and shoot for gold again.&rdquo;</p>
<p><strong>Jess Whittington for World Athletics</strong></p>

The US teenage track luminary is already ascending astronomically

After top year, Mu continues to shoot for the stars

<p>As the countdown to the World Athletics Awards 2021 continues, we shine a spotlight on the five women and five men who have been nominated for this year&rsquo;s Rising Star awards.</p>
<p>The winners will be selected by an international panel of experts and be announced live at the World Athletics Awards 2021 on 1 December.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Athing Mu</h2>
<p>Athing Mu has this year earned the rare honour of being nominated for both the main Athlete of the Year award and the Rising Star award.</p>
<p>Both nominations are more than justified too, because not only has the US runner been one of the leading U20 athletes in the world, she has also dominated the 800m on the senior international stage.</p>
<p>As she has done in previous years, Mu split her focus between the 400m and 800m this year. She set an indoor 400m best of 50.52, an outright PB at the time, then three weeks later set a world U20 indoor record of 1:58.40 for 800m.</p>
<p>Her stunning form continued outdoors and in her first race of the season she clocked an 800m PB of 1:57.73, breaking the North American U20 record. She broke three continental U20 records over 400m, clocking 49.84 and 49.68 before her 49.57 victory at the NCAA Championships.<br /><br /></p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8MFSeTY7_d8" width="100%" height="475" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p><br />After that, she focused exclusively on the 800m. Just three weeks after turning 19, she won the US Trials in a world-leading 1:56.07 to book her place on the Olympic team. But despite heading to Tokyo as the world leader in her event, there was some hesitation over her status as a gold medal favourite, given her young age, relative inexperience at the senior level, and the fact she had endured a long collegiate season.</p>
<p>There was no need to worry, though, as Mu dominated the two-lap event to win in 1:55.21, breaking the senior US record. She added another gold medal to her collection in the 4x400m, anchoring the US team to victory in 3:16.85 and producing the fastest split of the race with 48.32.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m accomplishing all the crazy things,&rdquo; said Mu. &ldquo;Being an Olympic gold medallist, that&rsquo;s insane. But I knew this is where I was supposed to be at this point in time. I knew this was definitely possible.&rdquo;</p>
<p>She capped her season with a world-leading 1:55.04 win at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Eugene, improving on her own US record. By that point, she had won 35 of her 36 races throughout the year, set 24 PBs (seven indoors, 17 outdoors, including relays), broke one world U20 record, one senior national record, and eight area U20 records.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Tadese Worku</h2>
<p>Ethiopia&rsquo;s Tadese Worku was one of the standout performers at the World U20 Championships Nairobi 21, emerging from the Kenyan capital with a gold and a silver medal.</p>
<p>He almost pulled off an ambitious distance double within the space of 24 hours. On the opening day of the championships he comfortably won the 3000m in 7:42.09, finishing two-and-a-half seconds ahead of the rest of the field. Despite Nairobi&rsquo;s altitude &ndash; not at all conducive to fast times in distance races &ndash; Worku&rsquo;s winning time broke the championship record.<br /><br /></p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yihwmtzKTew" width="100%" height="475" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p><br />The next day, Worku was back on track for the 5000m. In a frantic final sprint for the line, Worku was narrowly beaten by Benson Kiplangat as the Kenyan finished 0.28 ahead to take gold.</p>
<p>Outside of the major U20 event of the year, Worku featured prominently on the international racing circuit. He set an indoor 3000m PB of 7:41.06 in Lievin and reduced his outdoor best for the distance to 7:34.75 when finishing second to world champion Muktar Edris in Szekesfehervar. He also won over the distance in Chorzow, beating Olympic steeplechase champion Soufiane El Bakkali.</p>
<p>He excelled over longer distances too, clocking a PB of 26:58.30 over 10,000m in Hengelo, narrowly missing out on making Ethiopia&rsquo;s Olympic team at their hotly contested trials and moving to sixth on the world U20 all-time list.</p>
<p>Worku capped his season with a 26:56 national U20 record for 10km on the roads, moving to second on the world U20 all-time list. He ends the year with world U20 leading marks for 3000m indoors and outdoors, as well as for 10,000m and 10km.</p>

We focus on the five women and five men who have been nominated for this year’s Rising Star awards.

Spotlight on Rising Stars: Athing Mu and Tadese Worku

<p>As the countdown to the <strong>World Athletics Awards 2021</strong> continues, we shine a spotlight on the five women and five men who have been nominated for this year&rsquo;s Rising Star awards.</p>
<p>The winners will be selected by an international panel of experts and be announced live at the World Athletics Awards 2021 on 1 December.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Christine Mboma</h2>
<p>The Namibian teenager not only notched up four world U20 records over the half-lap sprint, she pieced together one of the greatest seasons of any senior 200m sprinter in history.</p>
<p>She set a PB of 22.73 in her first race of the year back in May, then improved to 22.67 to win in Prague, following it with a victory in Madrid 12 days later.</p>
<p>But despite that string of victories, the form she displayed at the Olympic Games took many of her rivals by surprise. She won her heat in 22.11, breaking the world U20 record, then improved to 21.97 in the semifinals before clocking 21.81 in the final to take silver.</p>
<p>That remained her only loss in a 200m final in 2021. From there, she went on to win the world U20 200m title in 21.84 and anchored Namibia to silver in the 4x100m. She dipped below 22 seconds again to win at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Brussels, then went even faster six days later to win the Diamond Trophy in Zurich, clocking another world U20 record of 21.78.<br /><br /></p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DdShcgLKdes" width="100%" height="475" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p><br />Mboma capped her season with victories in Zagreb (22.04) and Nairobi (22.39).</p>
<p>In total, Mboma recorded five sub-22-second performances over 200m this year. Only Jamaican legend Merlene Ottey (seven, 1990) and world record-holder Florence Griffith-Joyner (six, 1988) have achieved more in a single season.</p>
<p>Mboma now also owns the six fastest times in history by an U20 athlete.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h2>Emmanuel Wanyonyi</h2>
<p>Emmanuel Wanyonyi raced exclusively in Nairobi this year and won only one final &ndash; but that victory came in the race that mattered most.</p>
<p>Before he reached the World Athletics U20 Championships Nairobi 21, Wanyonyi had finished second at the Kenyan trials for the event, meaning he had barely registered on the radar as a pre-championship medal hope.</p>
<p>But, inspired by running in front of a home crowd in Nairobi, Wanyonyi was the fastest through each round of the men&rsquo;s 800m at the World U20 Championships, clocking 1:46.51 in his heat and 1:46.15 in his semifinal. By the time he advanced to the final, the 17-year-old was brimming with confidence.<br /><br /></p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Hxn18G0LQGI" width="100%" height="475" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p><br />Teammate Noah Kibet led for the first half of the final, going through 400m in a swift 49.39 with Wanyonyi just a stride behind. Kibet continued to lead until the final bend when Algeria&rsquo;s Mohamed Ali Gouaned edged ahead, but Wanyonyi wasn&rsquo;t finished.</p>
<p>Digging deep, Wanyonyi hit the lead with about 30 metres remaining and crossed the line in 1:43.76. Not only was his time a championship record, it was also a Kenyan U18 best.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Running a time of 1:43.76 at high altitude and setting a championship record has just confirmed that indeed I am good in this race,&rdquo; said Wanyonyi, who is coached by 2007 world champion Janeth Jepkosgei. &ldquo;I will keep pushing to see how much I can lower my new personal best. Who knows, maybe I can one day bring down Rudisha's world record.&rdquo;</p>

Spotlight on Rising Stars: Christine Mboma and Emmanuel Wanyonyi

<p>As the countdown to the <strong>World Athletics Awards 2021</strong> continues, we shine a spotlight on the five women and five men who have been nominated for this year&rsquo;s Rising Star awards. The winners will be selected by an international panel of experts and be announced live at the World Athletics Awards 2021 on 1 December.<br /><br /></p>
<h2>Keely Hodgkinson</h2>
<p>Keely Hodgkinson started the year as she meant to go on. In her very first race of 2021, the then 18-year-old ran 1:59.03 in Vienna to improve the almost 17-year-old world U20 indoor 800m record by exactly two seconds. She would later describe it as a &ldquo;perfect&rdquo; race, but she was far from done.</p>
<p>Five weeks later, and just four days after she turned 19, the Briton had further cause for celebration as she became the youngest ever winner of the women's 800m at the European Indoor Championships. Clocking 2:03.88 after a tactical race in Torun, Poland, she beat local favourites Joanna Jozwik and Angelika Cichocka to take the title.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t really think about the pressure,&rdquo; she said after her victory. &ldquo;I am only 19 and I&rsquo;m still learning and there&rsquo;s still things that I&rsquo;m going to learn.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>
<p>As the year went on, her athletics education continued with further top marks. She started her season with the first sub-two-minute outdoor 800m of her career, breaking the European U20 record with a winning time of 1:58.89 at the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting in Ostrava.<br /><br /></p>
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<p><br />Hodgkinson then retained her national title to secure her place on the British team for Tokyo and once there her star rose even higher. After running 2:01.59 to finish second in her heat, she won her semifinal in 1:59.12 and three days later she joined the USA&rsquo;s Athing Mu in achieving a teenage Olympic top two. Running 1:55.88 behind the winning 1:55.21 recorded by her fellow Rising Star nominee Mu &ndash; who had improved the world indoor U20 800m record to 1:58.40 the month after Hodgkinson&rsquo;s mark &ndash; the Briton broke double 2004 Olympic gold medallist Kelly Holmes&rsquo; 26-year-old national record of 1:56.21 to secure silver.&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;I am quite in shock about that time,&rdquo; said Hodgkinson, with the result also again improving the European U20 800m record. &ldquo;From European Indoors to breaking some records to now the biggest stage on the world, still a junior, is absolutely crazy.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>
<p>But her year still wasn&rsquo;t over.</p>
<p>After finishing fifth in Eugene and second in Brussels, running respective times of 1:58.30 and 1:58.16 &ndash; two of nine sub-2:00 800m times she achieved throughout the year &ndash; Hodgkinson lined up in Zurich for the Wanda Diamond League final.</p>
<p>Surging down the home straight and away from Jamaica&rsquo;s Natoya Goule and the USA&rsquo;s Kate Grace, who came through for second, Hodgkinson crossed the finish line of the Letzigrund stadium with 1:57.98 on the clock to claim the Diamond Trophy and cap an impressive breakthrough year.</p>
<p>&ldquo;A dreamy season ended as Diamond League champion,&rdquo; she wrote on social media. &ldquo;See you next year!&rdquo;&nbsp;<br /><br /></p>
<h2>Sean Burrell&nbsp;</h2>
<p>Breaking a world record at any point of a career is a remarkable achievement. Doing so during the very first year in an event is something else.</p>
<p>But that&rsquo;s exactly what the USA's Sean Burrell managed when he clocked 47.85 to win at the NCAA Championships in Eugene in June. Just two months after his first ever 400m hurdles race, the 19-year-old became the only U20 athlete to have ever dipped under 48 seconds in the discipline, improving the world U20 record of 48.02 which had been set by Danny Harris in 1984.</p>
<p>Running in lane eight, the LSU freshman was narrowly ahead as he came off the final bend but he quickly left his rivals behind as he powered over the final couple of barriers and then roared with delight when he saw his time on the Hayward Field clock.<br /><br /></p>
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<p><br />&ldquo;Everybody kept telling me to use what I know, use my speed,&rdquo; the former 200m and 400m specialist told ESPN. &ldquo;I came into the hurdles this year because we already had two 400m guys and I would have just been the third. I had a background of the (sprint) hurdles a little bit, so I came into it with my speed and a little bit of technique, and the times just kept dropping.&rdquo;</p>
<p>It was his seventh PB in as many competitions, with Burrell &ndash; nicknamed &lsquo;squirrel&rsquo; &ndash; having started out with a time of 50.83 when making his 400m hurdles debut at the Battle on the Bayou meeting in Baton Rouge at the beginning of April. From there he ran 50.64 in Tuscaloosa and improved to 50.15 and 49.12 in Baton Rouge later in the month, before clocking 48.92 at College Station and 48.86 in Jacksonville in May.</p>
<p>So he has certainly made a name for himself this year. But why the nickname? &ldquo;When I was younger, that was the name they gave me. I look like one, a fast one,&rdquo; explained Burrell, who also clocked 45.57 for the 400m flat indoors in 2021, a time which places him sixth on the world U20 indoor all-time list.</p>
<p>An incredibly fast, record-breaking one, as it turns out.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Be proud of everything you do and never give up,&rdquo; he said, when asked for a message to his supporters. &ldquo;When somebody tells you you can&rsquo;t do something, keep going, keep pushing. The sky is the limit. And be a squirrel, because it&rsquo;s always good to be a squirrel.&rdquo;<br /><br /></p>

Spotlight on Rising Stars: Keely Hodgkinson and Sean Burrell

<p>Olympic silver medallist Keely Hodgkinson will seek a strong start to her year when she races at the Muller Indoor Grand Prix Birmingham, a <strong>World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold</strong> meeting, on Saturday 19 February.</p>
<p>The British 800m record-holder is the first leading athlete to announce their intention to compete at the event, which returns to the Utilita Arena Birmingham in the new year.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m so excited to be running at the Muller Indoor Grand Prix Birmingham,&rdquo; said the 19-year-old. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s going to be one of my big races of the season and I can&rsquo;t wait to be back in front of a home crowd.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I had a great indoor season in 2021 and that set me up perfectly for the outdoors and the Olympic Games.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Competing at home with a big crowd in Birmingham will hopefully set me up for the same in 2022 with some massive major championships on the horizon.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Hodgkinson made her big breakthrough during the 2021 indoor season. She set a world U20 indoor 800m record in Vienna in January when clocking 1:59.03 and then won 800m gold at the European Indoor Championships in Torun.</p>
<p>Outdoors she claimed a second national title and then in Tokyo she broke Kelly Holmes&rsquo; national record with 1:55.88 to win 800m silver on her Olympic debut.</p>
<p>She ended her season with victory at the Weltklasse Zurich meeting, winning the Wanda Diamond League 800m title.</p>
<p>The Muller Indoor Grand Prix Birmingham was last staged in 2019, when Hodgkinson&rsquo;s fellow Olympic silver medallist Laura Muir broke the 31-year-old British mile record.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Ethiopia&rsquo;s Samuel Tefera broke the men&rsquo;s world 1500m record two years ago and hopes will be high once again for fast times and packed crowds in Birmingham.</p>
<p><strong>Organisers for World Athletics</strong></p>

The World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting returns to the Utilita Arena Birmingham in February.

Hodgkinson to kick-start 2022 in Birmingham

<p>In a tactical two-lap test, Emmanuel Korir used his impressive 400m speed to follow in the footsteps of his compatriot David Rudisha and secure a fourth consecutive Olympic 800m title for Kenya on Wednesday (4).</p>
<p>Leading home his compatriot Ferguson Rotich, the pair achieved the first same-nation 1-2 in this event since 1992, clocking respective times of 1:45.06 and 1:45.23, while Poland&rsquo;s former 400m hurdles specialist Patryk Dobek claimed bronze in 1:45.39.</p>
<p>It was a brilliant result for Korir, the 2019 world 400m sixth-placer, who had missed out on making the 800m finals at both the 2017 and 2019 World Athletics Championships. This race played perfectly into his hands.</p>
<p>An athlete with a 44.21 PB, Korir jogged around the first lap in 54 seconds and was sitting just behind race leader Peter Bol of Australia at the bell. As Bol kicked, Korir tracked his every move before powering past him off the final bend. With his head rocking with every stride, the 26-year-old Kenyan edged ahead down the home straight, holding off a fast-finishing Rotich, who overtook Dobek in the closing stages.</p>
<p>Bol &ndash; who had run 1:44.11 for his second Oceania record in as many days to make the final &ndash; was tiring but he managed to hold on to fourth place, running 1:45.92 to finish just ahead of Spain&rsquo;s Adrian Ben (1:45.96) and Bosnia and Herzegovina&rsquo;s two-time world medallist Amel Tuka (1:45.98). France&rsquo;s Gabriel Tual was seventh, Botswana&rsquo;s 2012 Olympic silver medallist Nijel Amos eighth and US champion Clayton Murphy, who claimed Olympic bronze in 2016, ninth.<br /><br /></p>
<p><img src="https://assets.aws.worldathletics.org/610a9781fd4775daa7273f4f.jpg" alt="" width="100%" /></p>
<p><br />"I don't know what to say, just thanks to God,&rdquo; said Korir, whose win was his first in an 800m final since his unbeaten season in the two-lap event in 2018. &ldquo;This is a big thing for me after failing to qualify for the final in the 2017 and 2019 World Championships. But today is my day.&rdquo;</p>
<p>On his race tactics, he added: "I didn't have any strategy, I just thought I would try and follow and see what would happen.</p>
<p>&ldquo;There was nobody who wanted to take the pace, so I just said I was going to control it. The Australian guy, Bol, he did something good for me."</p>
<p>World record-holder Rudisha, who ran his remarkable 1:40.91 to win his first Olympic title in 2012, was among those to congratulate his compatriots.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Back to Kenya!&rdquo; he wrote on social media. &ldquo;We retain gold in four straight Olympic Games in the men&rsquo;s 800m. Congratulations Emmanuel Korir and Ferguson Rotich.&rdquo;</p>
<p>While succeeding Rudisha as champion, 2017 NCAA champion Korir also emulated his own coach, Paul Ereng, who won a surprise gold at the 1988 Games in Seoul.</p>
<p>Kenya was the last nation to claim an Olympic 1-2 in this event, when William Tanui won from Nixon Kiprotich in Barcelona in 1992. On securing silver behind his compatriot, 2019 world bronze medallist Rotich said: "I'm very happy. Today we brought a silver and a gold, so it's a plus to our country and our lives."</p>
<p>For Dobek, the performance was further proof that his decision to switch from the 400m hurdles was a good one. Having only started racing the 800m this year, he quickly made an impact and won the European indoor title in what was only his fourth competition at the distance. After claiming Poland&rsquo;s first ever Olympic medal in this event, the 27-year-old paid tribute to his coach.</p>
<p>&ldquo;His name is Krol, the surname translates as 'king',&rdquo; said Dobek. &ldquo;And now I am the king of the 800 at the Olympics.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The final featured nine athletes following the inclusion of Amos, who was advanced by the referee after being involved in a fall with USA's Isaiah Jewett in the semifinals. That provided one of the heartwarming moments of the Games when the pair shook hands and left the track together after their clash.</p>
<p>"At the end of the day," Amos said, "it is all about 'united by emotion', as people say."</p>
<p><strong>Jess Whittington for World Athletics</strong></p>
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 75%; border-color: #ffffff; border-style: solid;" border="1" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="3">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="background-color: #fd5249; text-align: center;" colspan="3"><strong>MEN'S 800m MEDALLISTS</strong></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #e9c968; text-align: center;">🥇</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #e9c968;">Emmanuel Korir 🇰🇪 KEN</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #e9c968;">1:45.06</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #ced4d9; text-align: center;">🥈</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #ced4d9;">Ferguson Rotich 🇰🇪 KEN</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #ced4d9;">1:45.23</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 10%; background-color: #bd895e; text-align: center;">🥉</td>
<td style="width: 60%; background-color: #bd895e;">Patryk Dobek 🇵🇱 POL</td>
<td style="width: 30%; background-color: #bd895e;">1:45.39</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background-color: #34495e; text-align: left;" colspan="3">&nbsp;&nbsp;<span style="text-decoration: underline; color: #ffffff;"><strong><a style="color: #ffffff;" href="https://www.worldathletics.org/competitions/olympic-games/the-xxxii-olympic-games-athletics-7132391/results/men/800-metres/final/result" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Full results</a></strong></span></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p><em>&nbsp;</em></p>

Emmanuel Korir used his impressive 400m speed to follow in the footsteps of his compatriot David Rudisha and secure a fourth consecutive Olympic 800m title for Kenya.