Keely Hodgkinson ran the fastest time of the year on her return to action. Photograph: Aleksandra Szmigiel/Reuters

• Olympic 800m champion had not raced since Paris final

• Time of 1:54.74 is fastest of year and ninth on all-time list

Even by Keely Hodgkinson’s standards this was astonishing. The Olympic 800m gold medallist had not raced for 376 days due to a series of hamstring problems.

Yet on a blistering hot day in Poland she marked her return by destroying a quality field in 1min 54.74sec – the fastest time in the world this year by nearly two seconds.

Hodgkinson’s effort was also the ninth fastest in history and it was perfect timing, given the world championships in Tokyo starts in a month.

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“The track here is very fast,” said Hodgkinson of the Stadion Slaski in Katowice.

“I wanted to open my season today, I was ready and it worked.

“I was just happy to step on the track after more than a year.

But as I got closer to the race I got more and more relaxed.

I planned to run a fast time because I do not have five races any more before Tokyo, I only have today and the meeting in Lausanne. So it had to be fast and I am happy that it worked.”

The 23-year-old had given little away about her form in training during Friday’s pre-race press conference.

Yet she signalled her intent first by setting the wavelights to finish in 1:54.50 and then by immediately moving into second place behind the pacemaker, Lisanne De Witte.

The field was already strung out in single file as the bell sounded in 56.09, with the Kenyan Lilian Odira and Oratile Nowe of Botswana in close pursuit.

Yet when De Witte dropped out with 300m to go, Hodgkinson showed no signs of rust as pushed hard to extend her lead.

Coming into the home straight she was 10m clear of the field and she continued to push on to finish in her second fastest time ever, before jumping up and down in delight.

Keely Hodgkinson’s time of 1:54.74 was the fastest this year by almost two seconds. Photograph: Maja Hitij/Getty Images

Behind her, Odira took second in a personal best of 1:56.52 with Nowe third in a national record of 1:56.72.

But it was a measure of the race that there were seven personal bests and two season’s bests across the field.