Georgia Hunter Bell and Keely Hodgkinson took the Novuna Great Britain & Northern Ireland team’s World Championship medal haul to five as both finished on the podium in the women’s 800m on the final day in Tokyo.
The two training partners were in the thick of a rapid final and both found themselves in contention coming into the home straight.
Whilst Kenya’s Lilian Odira surged home in a Championship record time of 1:54.62 to claim gold, Hunter Bell (Trevor Painter, Belgrave Harriers) edged out her compatriot and training partner to claim silver in a new PB of 1:54.90.
Hodgkinson (Trevor Painter, Leigh) was one-hundredth of a second further back to earn her third consecutive World Championship medal, while the result marked the first time two Brits have medalled at the same event at this competition since 2007 when Christine Ohuruogu and Nicola Sanders took 1-2 in the women’s World 400m final.
Hunter Bell said: “I thought I needed to show what I could do in the 800m and I knew I would have to come into it fresh if I wanted to get a medal.
“Doing both is so hard, the competition is so good, I’m just really proud I put all my eggs in one basket. I’m just so happy with the fastest time I’ve ever run.”
Hodgkinson added: “I’m proud of both of us, we both got a medal. To get third in 1:54 and be consistent around after what I have been through this year, I’m really happy with. It’s not what I came here for but I can’t be too disappointed.”
The women’s 4x100m quartet came close to adding another medal to the British tally but had to settle for fourth in 42.07.
Dina Asher-Smith (Blackheath & Bromley), Amy Hunt (Marco Airale, Charnwood), Desiree Henry (Linford Christie, Enfield & Haringey), Daryll Neita (Lance Brauman, Cambridge Harriers) made up the four in the final and they came home just outside the podium places.
Asher-Smith said: “Obviously we wanted to come home with a gold medal, that’s all we ever aim for, but we will go back, analyse it, do all that stuff we are so great at doing.
“If we are giving it everything, there is never going to be disappointment. We will learn, move forward and increase it next time.”
The men’s 4x400m team of Lee Thompson (John Henson, Sheffield & Dearne), Toby Harries (David Sadkin, Brighton Phoenix), Lewis Davey (Trevor Painter, Newham and Essex Beagles), Charlie Dobson (Leon Baptiste, Colchester) finished sixth in 3:03.05.
Thompson said: “Four years ago in this stadium we were sixth in the heat, not the final, so that is progression and shows how far we’ve come.
“We just have high expectations now coming off the back of many years where we’ve been medalling, and that’s not a bad thing. But we need to get back in the medals and we’ll do that from next year and onwards.”
Elsewhere on the final evening’s action Morgan Lake shared seventh in the women’s high jump final with a best clearance of 1.93m while George Mills came home 16th in the men’s 5000m final in 13:44.88.
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