Did you really think the final evening of the 2025 World Athletics Championships to go on without another upset? The women’s 800m, the opening track event of the ultimate night of the championships, saw an unexpected contender, Lilian Odira of Kenya, run away with a championship record of 1:54.62–a personal best by nearly two seconds. Her win, which marked her world championships debut, officially means Kenya claimed gold in every women’s distance from the 800m to the marathon.
Great Britain’s Georgia Hunter Bell took silver in 1:54.90, outleaning women’s 800m favourite, Olympic champion and world leader Keely Hodgkinson (1:54.91) by just one-hundredth of a second.
Hodgkinson looked like she had the win in her back pocket in the final 50 metres of the race, when both Odira and Hunter Bell overtook her on the outside. The final saw all nine runners go under 1:58, including Australia’s Jess Hull, who was last to cross the line in 1:57.30.
Odira‘s win marks Kenya’s second gold medal in the 800m, following Emmanuel Wanyonyi‘s gold last night on the men’s side.
Before mid-August, Hodgkinson had not raced since winning 800m gold at last summer’s Olympics. Her indoor season was scrapped due to a hamstring injury, which lingered through to the outdoor season, forcing her withdrawal from the Stockholm Diamond League in June and last week’s London Diamond League. She returned to the track at the Silesia Diamond League, where she clocked a world lead of 1:54.74. Including all three of the rounds at the Tokyo championships, she’s raced a total of five times in 2025.
