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Keely Hodgkinson: How Olympic champion broke indoor 800m world record

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Jenny Meadows and Keely Hodgkinson at a winter training camp in South Africa

Since 2019, Hodgkinson has trained with coaches Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows in Manchester.

Meadows, a former international runner, was in France to watch her protege take almost a second off the 800m indoor record, set by Slovenia’s Jolanda Ceplak almost 24 years ago.

“She actually said to me the day before: ‘obviously I know I’m going to get it’,” said Meadows.

“There had been so many benchmarks we measure in training, we had no doubt that she would do it.

“Her biggest fear was to set a world record, but be disappointed with the time. She said ‘what if I can’t smile? What if I’ve got the world record, and everyone’s so excited, and I think, oh that was rubbish. I could have gone faster’?”

The date – 19 February 2026 – had long been set in the diary by Meadows and Hodgkinson given the track in Lievin is notoriously fast.

“Lievin has had a lot of world records over the years, and we kind of thought ‘you know what, let’s go with the statistics’,” Meadows said.

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“We’re only probably going to get one opportunity during this indoor season to go for it. So that’s the event that we picked, and that’s the date we’ve really had etched in our minds the last three months.”

“I’ve got to say, the time she did was the bare minimum of what she was happy with,” Meadows added.

“She definitely would have liked to run faster, and there was definitely half a second, maybe even up to one second in those legs.”

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Commonwealth Games 2026: Aziz Abdul, grandson of Idi Amin, disqualified for headbutt in Glasgow

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Aziz Abdul reacts after being disqualified for a headbutt during fight against England's Damar Thomas

Before the super-heavyweight bout Abdul told the BBC he wanted to become the new ‘King of Scotland’ – in reference to Amin declaring himself that name in 1976.

After taking power in a coup in 1971, Amin ran a brutal regime during which an estimated half a million people were killed. He was also known as the Butcher of Uganda.

Abdul, who never met his grandfather, was chasing Uganda’s first Commonwealth boxing medal since Auckland in 1990 – something which would have been guaranteed had he beaten Thomas.

Instead, he was given warnings in the previous two rounds and was trailing on all of the judges’ scorecards.

“All I can say about this is the decision is not right, I am not happy,” he said.

“He elbowed me. He caught me with the elbow.

“It [the head movement] was not intentional. I was trying to come back.

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“How can I headbutt someone? I would not.

“He was the person they wanted to win. He was the winner before.

“I knew if I did not get knockout I could not win the fight.”

BBC Sport has contacted Commonwealth Games organisers and World Boxing for a response to Abdul’s comments.

Thomas, who is now guaranteed at least a bronze medal, said it was “not the way” he wanted to win.

“I can’t change what happened today but I can control how I box on Friday,” he said.

Amin, himself a boxer, harboured a fascination with Scotland after serving in the King’s African Rifles in his 20s.

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At the height of the regime, he was fond of wearing a kilt and playing the bagpipes – and even declared himself “King of Scotland” in 1976.

Some years later, those predilections even spawned an Oscar-winning film, The Last King of Scotland, starring Forest Whitaker and James McAvoy.

In a previous interview, Abdul said he was “inspired” by Amin, although it was not entirely clear whether he was talking about his boxing feats or not.

Speaking to the BBC, he refused to answer when asked if he was proud to be the dictator’s grandson, but he did address the question of how he feels when he is linked to someone with such a sinister reputation.

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Commonwealth Games 2026: Scotland claim eight medals in five chaotic hours as Games hit halfway

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Melanie Woods, Keanna MacInnes, Angharad Evans, Owen McCormack

After a relatively quiet day, the first medal was claimed by the men’s 3×3 basketball team just before 17:00 BST.

A couple of hours later, three more followed in the space of five minutes.

The women’s wheelchair 3×3 basketball team took silver; Evans added her second gold – and third medal – of the Games in the 200m breaststroke; then Woods claimed gold in the women’s T54 1500m.

Shaw then joined in with bronze in the women’s S9 100m freestyle before MacInnes was edged into second place in the women’s 200m butterfly to take her second individual silver of the meet.

Around the same time, MacKenzie was leaping to long jump bronze, before the haul was completed in the pool when Evans and MacInnes teamed up with Katie Shanahan and Evie Davis to take silver in the women’s 4x100m medley.

Three more further medals are guaranteed in boxing – with fighters in semi-final action on Friday – while further prospects remain in athletics, bowls, cycling, judo and weightlifting.

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Women’s Open: Georgia Hall returns to venue of 2018 win five months after giving birth

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English golfer Georgia Hall during the 2026 Women's Open pro-am event

The ultimate achievement would be to now emulate her old Solheim Cup skipper Catriona Matthew, who won the Women’s Open here at Lytham in 2009, just 11 weeks after giving birth to daughter Sophie.

The Scot plays down this remarkable achievement, saying it was easier than it would have been after the arrival of a first child.

“I spoke to her and I said, ‘I really don’t know how you did it,’” said Hall.

“You couldn’t dream of doing that. I couldn’t. She said, ‘Oh, it’s a lot easier with the second.’”

Hall asked for advice from Matthew, who told the Dorset star to manage expectations.

“Just as in expecting a little bit less, but not in a bad way,” Hall told BBC Sport.

“If you hit a bad shot, you’ve been out of it for a year. You’ve given birth to a human.

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“So it will take some time, basically be patient. And that’s what I’m going to have in my mind this week.”

Hall will marry Conor’s father Paul Dunne, who led the 2015 Open as an amateur and beat Rory McIlroy to the 2017 British Masters title. The baby boy could hardly have more impeccable golfing genes.

And the new mum has already made sure of a family photo on the 18th green this week. Hall said: “It’ll be my new screensaver.”

Eight years ago the photos were of her clutching one of golf’s most prestigious trophies, but that is not her abiding memory.

“I think just holing so many putts,” she said.

“That’s why you play golf. It wasn’t even like holding the trophy at the end. It was the feeling you get from an accomplishment of holing great putts when it mattered.

“Just so many of them, I remember, and when I was playing practice rounds the last few days, I would remember, oh yeah, I hit it there and that pin position was there. So it is nice to relive.”

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It is probably asking too much this week for Hall to reprise that 2018 victory when she finished 17-under-par to win by two shots. This year the remodelled links is baked out, providing a fast, firm and fearsome challenge.

“Definitely it’s one of the hardest,” said Hall. “This golf course is so hard and they made changes that make it harder. So I’m expecting scoring to be a bit tricky.

“But I’m improving every month and that’s just my only goal. I believe that my game’s in decent shape and if I can get in the right mentality and hole some decent putts, I think I’ll be OK.”

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