Athletics
Georgia Hunter Bell excited to step into limelight alongside Keely Hodgkinson
Newly-crowned world indoor 1500m champion Georgia Hunter Bell sometimes needs to remind herself that her own astonishing trajectory is just as worthy of celebrating as that of training partner Keely Hodgkinson.
The “sisters”, as Hunter Bell likens them, have plenty in common: British passports, coaching team Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows, blonde ponytails, fiercely competitive spirits and – more recently – 800m podiums, including last year’s world final, with more head-to-heads planned for this season.
Hodgkinson’s route to Olympic gold, then the world 800m indoor title and record, has looked more traditional, while Hunter Bell’s career comeback – quitting a full-time job in tech sales after collecting 1500m bronze at the Paris 2024 Olympics, followed by three world podiums in 12 months – is uniquely remarkable.
“It’s hard, isn’t it?” Hunter Bell told the Press Association. “Because she’s doing such amazing things that deserve the limelight, I get it, and just as much as they’re her big moments, that also kind of helps me as well.
“But I know sometimes I’m like, ‘OK’. I need to also take in how far I’ve come, because obviously she’s been setting amazing goals, but then I’m like, ‘My goals are also great!’ It might not be a world record, but it’s so exciting for me that I’ve got a British record.
“(Keely) is super supportive and Trev and Jen are as well. I think we’re able to run a lot faster because we’re together, and I think there pretty much won’t be a race this year where we’re both not competing in the same event or the same championships.
“Our lives are just so similar. It’s kind of like sisters. Just a family. We can get on each others’ nerves as well, but I feel like overall it is a really good thing.”
Hunter Bell’s gold medal is unintentionally “getting a bit of a world tour”. She flew straight from Poland to Melbourne to open her outdoor season at this weekend’s Continental Tour meet, then will depart for training camp.
Her maiden world title was one of three golds won by British women in 30 minutes in Torun. Pole vaulter Molly Caudery and Hodgkinson also struck gold in an exhilarating half hour “that showed me winning is so much cooler than silver or bronze,” Hunter said.
“That feeling was just unmatched. You live for those moments in racing or competing.”
Hunter Bell handed in her notice and turned pro after Paris, and her astronomic rise has forced her to quickly accept the ‘favourite’ label.
She is now determined to back it up with a Commonwealth Games and home European Championships on the horizon, and says her “biggest challenge this season will be going in with the expectation to deliver and getting it done, no matter what the scenario”.
“(Torun) was a huge jump for me as an athlete,” she added. “It was the race that showed me what is possible. Now I see myself going into races truly believing that I can win.”
