Kenya's Lilian Odira upsets Hodgkinson to win world 800m gold

Kenya's Lilian Odira overhauled Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson to win the women's 800 metres title at the world championships in Tokyo on Sunday.

Odira set a championship record – and a massively improved personal best time – of 1min 54.62sec for victory, beating by 0.06sec the previous best set by Jarmila Kratochvilova of the then-Czechoslavakia in Helsinki in 1983.

Georgina Hunter Bell took silver in a personal best of 1:54.90 in a photo finish with her British teammate and training partner Hodgkinson who had to settle for bronze.

Hodgkinson, who has won silver medals at the last two worlds, was the big favourite coming into the race despite having had limited time on the track.

Extremely fast race

The 23-year-old had admitted she was sweating on her place at the world championships until the last minute because she was sidelined for months by hamstring problems after winning Olympic gold in Paris last summer and only returned to track action in August.

In an extremely fast race, defending world champion Mary Moraa of Kenya raced into the lead, Hodgkinson hugging the curb on her shoulder.