Hodgkinson, The Reigning Champion, Advances To The 800m Final

In the fastest-ever women’s 800m semifinal in the history of the European Athletics Championships, defending champion Keely Hodgkinson easily qualified for Wednesday night’s Rome final.

The two-time world champion and silver medallist from the Tokyo Olympics qualified fastest, clocking in at one minute, 58.07 seconds. However, teammates Erin Wallace and Alex Bell were not selected for the final.

“This is way too early for me and less than 24 hours since the last race,” explained Hodgkinson, 22.

“I felt good – I think today I wanted to be a bit more where I was comfortable with on the pace.

“A couple of the girls were saying thank you afterwards because they got PBs.”

With the quickest time of 42.25 seconds, the British team consisting of Desiree Henry, Amy Hunt, Dina Asher-Smith, and Asha Philip easily made it to the final of the women’s 4x100m relay.

The men’s team, which consists of bronze medallist Romell Glave, Jona Efoloko, Richard Kilty, and CJ Ujah, finished eighth and last in their heat and will not advance to the final.

“It was horrendous, I don’t know what happened. We should never been running that slow,” explained Kilty.

“That team on paper is a very very fast team, but something clearly went wrong. It is very disappointing as we wanted to come here and win. We are capable of winning.”

In the men’s 4×400-meter relay, there was better news: Lewis Davey, Michael Ohioze, Toby Harries, and Charlie Carvell, representing Great Britain, won their heat in 3:01.69 to secure a chance to defend their 2022 European gold medal.