Keel-good factor!

HODGKINSON: I CAN BREAK WORLD RECORD IN PARIS...

- ALAN SMITH

KEELY HODGKINSON stormed to the sixth-fastest 800m of all time before claiming she can now dream about breaking the world record.

The 22-year-old ran 1min 54.61sec in a sublime victory at the London Diamond League to leave her the dominant favourite for Olympic gold.

While she remains 1.33secs off the record set by Czech Jarmila Kratochvilova in 1983, only Caster Semenya, in 2018, and Pamela Jelimo, in 2008, have gone faster this century.

And for the first time an overjoyed Hodgkinson said that she is capable of going where no woman has before.

"We're getting closer to the world record," she said. "I don't know how close we'll get.

"But do I think it's beatable? Now, I would say yes.

"It would take a very special race. But that's happened. And, hopefully, I will have a long time to try."

First up, however, she will look to upgrade the silver medal won in Tokyo three years ago to gold.