Athletics world record that's stood for 43 years could finally be broken

One of the longest-reigning world record holders in athletics could be toppled in a matter of months.

The advancement in athletics track and field technology, and enhanced training regimes, has led to an increasing number of world records being broken in recent years.

Since the beginning of 2020, new world records have been set in 35 different disciplines in women's competition, alongside 31 in men's competition.

Three of those records have been set in February 2026 alone, with USA's Khaleb McRae setting a new indoor 400-metre record and Japan's Toshikazu Yamanishi doing likewise in the half marathon walk.

But it is Team GB's Keely Hodgkinson, who broke a 24-year indoor 800-metre record during a race meeting in France, that has caught the most attention.

The 23-year-old, who was born in Greater Manchester, is one of the most well-known athletes in Great Britain, and won Olympic gold in the 800 metres at Paris 2024.

Hodgkinson won bronze at the 2025 World Athletics Championships, but a hamstring injury suffered earlier in the year had limited her preparations.

On February 16, she set a time of 1:54.87 in an indoor 800-metre race, breaking the previous record set by Czechia's Jolando Ceplak - which had been held since the day Hodgkinson was born in 2002.

The Team GB star has long had her sights on the outdoor women's 800-metre world record, which has been held for a staggering 43 years by Poland's Jarmila Kratochvilova.

She told The Times in a new interview that she has increased her muscle mass from 54kg to 60kg since Paris 2024, crediting a new cycling regime for the change.

Former 800-metre runner Svetlana Masterkova once told Reuters that Kratochvilova's record was so fast that it would 'last for 100 years', but the Pole herself claimed in 2012 that she believed Russian athletes could top it prior to the state-sponsored doping scandal.

Her training regime consisted of uphill running and take-off jumping - as well as repeating a 300-metre dash 20 times in a day, with two-minute rest breaks.

"Perhaps you cannot imagine what it means to run 300 metres 20 times," Kratochvilova told The New York Times in 1999. "You should try it. Every day of my training was hard."

Realistically, the record will still be extremely difficult for Hodgkinson to beat.

Her personal best stands at 1:54.61 - a time still 1.33 seconds behind Kratochvilova's all-time record of 1:53.28, which was set all the way back in 1983.

One of the major challenges, Hodgkinson told The Times, is having a 'pacemaker' that can keep pace with her during the opening three-quarters of the race, before she can then kick on in the final 200.

And a world record attempt also requires the perfect weather and wind conditions.

"Outdoors it is harder to predict," she explained. "I'd love to target the London Diamond League; running in front of that crowd. But we may go there and it's really windy."

"Ideally I'd want someone there until the 600m mark. But that's not easy when runners of that calibre would be the people I generally race. And why would they want to help me set a world record?"

Hodgkinson may need to take a similar approach to the Kenyan athletes at the 2025 World Athletics Championships, with Lilian Odira setting her new personal best time of 1:54.62 to win the 800-metre final.

The 26-year-old admitted post-race that the Kenyan team had used Mary Moraa, who specialised in 400 metres before transitioning to the 800, as the pacesetter in the early part of the race.

She told Kenyan outlet The Star: "We worked as a team. We knew Mary was strong over 400m, so she was to set the pace.

"From there, the best athlete would emerge."