GB one-two in Tokyo 800m ‘would be coolest thing’

Georgia Hunter Bell is fond of the comically large vest, which she recalls well.

As she passed everyone, both girls and boys, on the final lap, she knew she would win her first ever track race.

According to her mother, 800 meters in two minutes and 39 seconds was “pretty good” for a 10-year-old.

More than 20 years later, as Britain’s Olympic 1500m bronze medalist prepares to complete a full circle in search of another podium, everything is still vivid.

Just a few weeks before the World Championships in Tokyo started, she was still wrestling with the decision to stick with the 1500-meter run, switch to the 800-meter, or even attempt a rare double.

However, Hunter Bell’s decision to target the 800m in Tokyo has sparked a tantalizing gold-medal showdown with training partner Keely Hodgkinson in Sunday’s final (11: 35 BST), after making exciting progress this season in the event that initially showed great promise before she quit the sport for five years.

Hodgkinson and Hodgkinson met in August’s two-lap competition at the Lausanne Diamond League, where she won back-to-back titles while recovering from injury.

Hunter Bell stated to BBC Sport before the race that “this year will be the first year that it might be close.”

We practice a lot together, and our relationship is evidently excellent.

The coolest thing ever would be if Great Britain could win two out of three medals and [our training group] M11 could win one-two.

Hunter Bell considered attempting an ambitious double because she was unsure of what competition to compete in Tokyo.

Only four women in history, including Dame Kelly Holmes, who Hunter Bell consulted before making her decision, have ever achieved podium positions in both the 800 and 1500 meters at a single World Championship.

As her decision-making deadline approached, her team even resorted to consulting Chat GPT on her behalf. She described the situation as “head versus heart.”

The verdict? The double is feasible but uncertain.

The 1500m in Tokyo preceded the 800m in Athens, which was a different Olympic event from when Holmes won twice at Athens in 2004.

In the end, Hunter Bell would have had to compete three 1500-meter rounds before the form that suggested she would have a better medal chance would have required her to complete the race in nine days.

Two weeks after Holmes’ second victory in Athens, Hunter Bell has made a long way since she proudly wore the colors of Ealing, Southall, and Middlesex in her first track race in 2004.

Hunter Bell hopes that’s just the beginning because this is her first full-time year of competing after quitting her seven-year cybersecurity position to take a summer sabbatical to pursue her Olympic ambition.

She claims that she is “still pinching myself” because of the seismic change.

Hunter Bell, who was previously coached by Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows, who both won the 800m gold, has quickly made her a top middle-distance runner in the world.

Hunter Bell, a husband-and-wife team, added a world indoor 1500m bronze medal in March, while acknowledging how grateful she was for her “hard lesson” at the European indoors, where she started as favorite but fell short of a medal.

Trev had hoped to develop me into a world-class 800-meter athlete at first. Hunter Bell explains that to Hunter Bell.

“We were just doing the standard 1500 training this year, but Trevor and Jen noticed that I was looking significantly better in that when we started practicing for the speed stuff.”

Hunter Bell, a champion in the English schools and British universities, won the Diamond League 800m championships in Stockholm and London this year.

Hunter Bell always anticipated her team-mate’s best performance for the championships when making her final choice despite first-hand experience and assistance in Hodgkinson’s recovery from the hamstring injuries that have kept her out this year.

Hunter Bell describes Hodgkinson’s challenging year as “she has dealt with it really well.”

“It can be very difficult to get an injury,” says one person. We’ve all made it our mission to be truly supportive, and it’s just about trying to make it as positive as possible while also being realistic.

She continues, “Trev and Jenny are very jokey, they keep the training environment fun, and they handle the potentially awkward issue of two athletes competing for the same gold.” But it’s obvious that everything is business when we enter the track.

They always give their best advice to the individual athlete, and they always let the chips fall where they can.