Keely Hodgkinson became New York’s Queen of the 800m after beating her rival and compatriot Georgia Hunter-Bell at the glitzy all-female Athlos athletics event at the Icahn Stadium on Friday night.
The Olympic gold medallist has already spoken ruefully about her s***show of a season, after an extended spell on the sidelines due to a hamstring injury in the wake of the Paris Games meant she only returned to competition in August.
Hodgkinson claimed two victories on the trot at Diamond League events in Silesia and Lausanne in preparation for last month’s World Championships in Tokyo.
Despite coming into the event looking close to back to her best, Hodgkinson had to content herself with a bronze-medal finish after Kenya’s Lilian Odira pipped both her and Hunter-Bell to the post.
But while Hunter-Bell got the better of her in Japan, Hodgkinson was able to end her season on a high Stateside, with her team-mate shunted back to silver.
The 23-year-old cruised to her first-place finish with a time of one minute 56.53 seconds at the all-women’s meeting, and was duly rewarded with the spoils of her victory by tennis legend Serena Williams.
Athlos is the brainchild of Williams’ husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, and launched last year in a bid to provide female athletics stars with a two-day blockbuster meeting that rewards them with one of the biggest pay-pots in the sport.
Among the innovations is She Jumps Times Square, the long jump event held in the very centre of Manhattan, a performance by Ciara, and instead of medals, crowns custom made by Tiffany & Co.
The crowns are estimated to be worth a staggering $25,000 (£18,721), and as per Ohanian, took ten weeks and 25 hours of labour to create.
As well as their trophies, the winners will take home $60,000 (£44,931), with second-place stars making $25,000 (£18,721), third $10,000 (£7,488), fourth $8,000 (£5,990), fifth $5,000 (£3,744), and sixth place wins $2,500 (£1,872).
If a world record is set at the event, the athlete would be handed a mammoth bonus worth $250,000 ($187,213).
The event, which describes itself as ‘athlete-first’, also intends to hand all competitors a portion of 10 per cent worth of its ticket, broadcast, and sponsorship revenue.
Some of the other boldfaced names that have signed up to take part this year include Amy Hunt, Faith Kipyegon, Brittany Brown, and Tara Davis-Woodhall.
‘I’ve barely raced this season so it was probably less of a struggle for me to go out there and want to give it something,’ said Hodgkinson after claiming her crown.
‘The atmosphere out there is crazy so it was really, really fun.’
But Hodgkinson might not have be assured of such a warm reception ahead of her run-out on Friday evening, after getting herself into hot water with comments made about Americans on social media last month.
In a TikTok video published to TikTok in the wake of her bronze medal in Japan, the 23-year-old filmed herself rolling her eyes and sipping on a drink to the sound of a woman saying, ‘And now I want to sit back and relax and enjoy my evening, when all of a sudden, I hear this agitating, grating voice.’
Keely captioned the video: ‘When there are Americans in the restaurant’ and ‘They’re really the loudest in the room’.
Meanwhile, her fellow Olympic gold medallist, for 100m hurdles, Masai Russell, who is American, commented: ‘Hey, not too much!’ and Keely responded, ‘Y’all are the most fun’.
