Sharing podium with Hodgkinson would be ‘coolest thing’ – Hunter Bell

Silesia Diamond League

Location: Silesia, Poland Date: Saturday, 16 August

Georgia Hunter Bell remembers it well, not least the comically oversized vest.

The feeling of knowing she was going to win her first ever track race as she passed everyone – girls and boys – on the final lap. Listening as her mum was told that 800m in two minutes and 39 seconds was “pretty good” for a 10-year-old.

It all remains vivid, more than two decades later, as Britain’s Olympic 1500m bronze medallist weighs up the potential for completing a full-circle moment in pursuit of another global podium.

The dilemma over whether to stick with the 1500m, switch focus to the 800m, or even attempt a rare double, continues to occupy her mind just four weeks before the World Championships begin in Tokyo.

Hunter Bell’s exciting progress this season in the event which she originally showed great promise before she quit the sport for five years has teased the tantalising prospect of a showdown with training partner Keely Hodgkinson in a global final.

The pair will go head-to-head over 800m at next week’s Lausanne Diamond League, after which Hunter Bell will make her decision.

Before then, the 31-year-old contests a 1500m in Silesia on Saturday, where, in the 800m, Hodgkinson will race for the first time since being crowned Olympic champion in that event 12 months ago following an injury-disrupted year.

“This year will be the first time that it might be close,” Hunter Bell tells BBC Sport, as she looks ahead to competing against Hodgkinson.

“We do a lot of training together, we obviously are very good friends and we have a great team vibe, so I think at the moment we’re just taking it day-by-day.

“It will be interesting, if we both make the world final and we both have a chance of doing well, how we manage [the situation].

“But, at the end of the day, if Great Britain could win two medals out of three, and [our training group] M11 could go one-two, that would just be the coolest thing ever.

Only four women have made the podium in both the 800m and 1500m at a single World Championships.

They include Dame Kelly Holmes, winner of two golds at the 2004 Olympics. Hunter Bell has met the track great to seek advice about that ambitious undertaking.

“I haven’t completely ruled out a double yet. We’re spending the next two weeks mulling over everything, it’s probably 90% of what I’m thinking about all the time,” says Hunter Bell.

“It’s head versus heart. My head is like, ‘don’t try and do too much’, while my heart is like ‘how cool would it be to try and do something amazing?’

“We’ve had some of the British greats do it before.”

Hunter Bell has taken the long way round since she proudly wore the colours of Ealing, Southall and Middlesex in her first track race back in 2004 – two weeks after Holmes, now her mentor, completed that historic double at the Athens Games.

But Hunter Bell hopes that is just the start, with this her first year as a full-time athlete after she left her cybersecurity job of seven years following a summer sabbatical to pursue her Olympic dream.

It is a seismic change – one which she says has left her “still pinching myself”.

Back under the guidance of her former coach Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows, herself a world 800m medallist, Hunter Bell has rapidly established herself among the world’s best middle-distance runners. Under the husband-and-wife team, she added world indoor bronze in March.

“Originally, Trev believed he could make me into a world-class 800m athlete. He always said that,” explains Hunter Bell.

“I want to improve on [Olympic] bronze last year, and whatever decision I make will have that in mind.

“Obviously you can never have enough medals. But if there’s a way to improve on that with silver or gold, then I would give that more value.”

Hunter Bell’s performances in the 800m make that option extremely tempting.

She admits another victory in Lausanne next week, where Ethiopia’s Olympic silver medallist Tsige Duguma is also present, would make it “hard to not do the 800m”.

While Kenyan great Faith Kipyegon has swept six of the past seven global 1500m titles, the 800m appears wide-open before Tokyo amid world champion Mary Moraa’s inconsistency and two-time global champion Athing Mu’s failure to qualify.

But having witnessed first hand – and assisted in – Hodgkinson’s recovery from the hamstring injury which has kept her out this year, Hunter Bell fully expects her team-mate to be back to her best.

“Keely is an athlete who really thrives on and lives for race day. So it’s obviously something that she’s desperate to get back to, but she has dealt with it really well,” says Hunter Bell.

“Whenever anyone gets an injury it can be really tough. It’s just about trying to make it as positive as possible, while also being realistic, and as a team we’ve all just tried to be really supportive.”

She adds: “Trev and Jenny are very jokey, they keep the training environment fun. But obviously, when we step on the track, it’s all business.