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Fresh from winning silver in the women’s 800m final in Tokyo, Georgia Hunter Bell speaks to Sky Sports News about thoughts on adding the 1500m at LA 2028 and advice on the challenge from Dame Kelly Holmes, plus how training partner Keely Hodgkinson is feeling after taking bronze

World Championship 800m silver medallist Georgia Hunter Bell says both her Keely Hodgkinson were excited at the prospect of both medalling and revealed she hasn’t ruled out competing in both 800m and 1500m distances in future championships

A significant moment in any athlete’s career – whatever their sport – is when they do something that elevates them mentally from a place where they ‘thought’ they could do something to they now ‘know’ they can do it.

Winning silver at the World Athletics Championships over 800m on Sunday night in Tokyo, coupled with her 1500m Olympic bronze from Paris 2024, has now placed Georgia Hunter Bell into a different level of athlete – one that truly believes.

Hunter-Bell told Sky Sports News: “I wanted to prove that I am one of the best 800m runners in my own right there and so now that I’ve done that it gives me a bit of confidence.”

With consistent global medal success comes greater ambition and where her friend, trainer partner and 800m Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson is an 800m runner who also can run 400m, Hunter Bell was very much a 1500m runner who has now introduced herself to the elite of 800m runners.

And there are few better who have achieved greatness combining the 800m and 1500m than Dame Kelly Holmes.

Dame Kelly brought the nation to a standstill at the Athens Olympics in 2004 when she took Olympic 800m and 1500m gold.

Her performances of 20 years ago showed true grit, determination and sheer guts and are firmly established in Olympic folklore.

Image: Kelly Holmes with her 800m and 1500m golds from Athens 2004

So what challenge could next await Hunter Bell, surely a crack at greatness at the 2028 Olympics by combining both 800m and 1500m?

“Kelly has been very helpful to me,” says Hunter Bell.

“I consulted with her a lot in the run-up to this about whether I should do the double and she was really helpful offering her advice.

She had done it very consistently and obviously did very well!

“I will see. I think next year is a good opportunity to test it out a little bit as we have the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, we’ll also have the European Championships in Birmingham.

Two big championships on home soil. So, maybe I’ll have a practise and we’ll see.”

Running both the 800m and 1500m at Olympic and World level and winning medals is not done often anymore.

Dame Kelly spent years perfecting her Olympic double gold attempt while, going back even further, the rivalry between Seb Coe and Steve Ovett over those distances captivated not just British interest, but a global interest as well. But that was over 40 years ago.

“It’s a very rare double these days,” said Hunter Bell.

“People might do it with a 1500m and 5000m double, but it’s very rare that people do it with a 800m-1500m double.

I think that’s just because the races have got so fast that they’re no longer really tactical.

“That’s what they used to be, kind of slow with the kick and now the championships are usually just flat out from the ground so it’s really difficult physically to do that and make it through all the rounds successfully.

There is no margin for error, so yeah I think it’s got harder, definitely.”

2026 offers a perfect test ground for Hunter Bell to see if emulating Dame Kelly is possible, although it’s clear it’s something she would want to do.

Two ‘home’ championships at Glasgow (Commonwealth Games) and Birmingham (European Championships) offer an opportunity to test the speed required for 800m and the stamina essential for 1500m in an environment she can control.

‘You can see what she’s been through this year’ – Hunter Bell on Hodgkinson

One person she may not be able to control – at least during a race – is her training partner, Hodgkinson.

The 800m Olympic champion was viewed as the heir apparent to the gold medal in Tokyo, but perhaps overlooked was the toll the hamstring injuries she endured this year which meant she only raced for the first time this year in August, over a year had passed since her previous 800m race and that was when she stormed to Olympic glory in Paris;

“I was in Tokyo with Keely the last couple of days,” said Hunter Bell.

“She’s running 1:54.9 but I know she’s not happy.

She’s done so well, she handled everything pretty well, obviously she’s a competitor and she’s an Olympic champion so she’s always going to want to go into a race and win, but you can see what she’s been through this year.

Image: Great Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson and Georgia Hunter Bell win bronze and silver in World Athletics Championships 800m

“She’s done her hamstring twice! And she’s still able to come back and run amazing times.

She’s run 1:54.9 twice this year which is just incredible so I think I already knew what a strong person she was.”

How Hunter Bell and Hodgkinson celebrated Tokyo medal success

Perhaps more incredible has been Hunter Bell’s path back to athletics.

She spoke about it when competing at Paris 2024, but worth a reminder that she packed up athletics altogether and walked away from the sport for five years.

It was only during the Covid pandemic that she got back into running seriously by entering parkruns and getting back in touch with her coach, Trevor Painter.

Up until April 2024, just three months before the Paris Olympics, she had worked for seven years as a tech-sales advisor.

After she and Hodgkinson collected their silver and bronze medals inside the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo, performed their media duties and the glamorous side of sport – providing anti-doping samples – the two along with family and friends headed into Tokyo and found what else? A karaoke bar until the small hours of Monday morning.

“It was late and we were like, ‘it’s time to go celebrate’ so we headed straight for a karaoke bar obviously!” recalls Hunter Bell.

“It was just a couple of hours there, just a lot of songs and singing, and then we finished it off by going to McDonald’s so just a classic night out really!

“We did Natasha Bedingfield and [Justin] Bieber, there was also some Elvis of course… Suspicious Minds.”

And Hunter-Bell’s pièce de résistance? “I think it was Natasha Bedingfield, Unwritten. We got that done!”