KEELY'S FUN RUN

Happy Hodgkinson's back on track after painful 2025

- BY ANDY DUNN

THE afterglow of Olympic success can last for a while but when it is gone, getting back to hard work, away from the spotlight, can be tough.

And for Keely Hodgkinson, the BBC Sports Personality of the Year for 2024 and poster athlete of the Paris Games, it was especially tough.

But it was not a post-euphoria mentality that troubled Hodgkinson, it was physicality - two torn hamstrings ruining most of her plans for 2025.

She still made it to the start line of the World Championships in Tokyo, finishing a creditable third behind Lilian Odira and Georgia Hunter Bell, but the year was not what she had in mind.

At times, Hodgkinson must surely have wondered if that glorious summer's night in the Stade de France was as good as it would get.