Great Britain and Northern Ireland's Keely Hodgkinson stormed to her first World Athletics Indoor Championships title in Torun on Sunday (22) in a stunning 800m championship record time of 1:55.30.
The 2024 Olympic champion, who recently smashed the world indoor record, lived up to her billing as the clear favourite, taking an incredible 1.6 seconds off the 1:56.90 clocked by Czechia's Ludmila Formanova in 1999 with second fastest time ever seen indoors and only beaten by Hodgkinson herself.
Switzerland's Audrey Werro, who was second on the night that extraordinary 1:54.87 world record was set in Liévin, France was again the runner-up. She was also under the old record with a remarkable time of 1:56.64, taking 0.63 seconds off her own Swiss short track record achieved in Belgrade last month.
"shape of our lives"
After returning to the track less than an hour later to compete in the 4x400m in which her quartet finished fifth, she said: "I have been in so many finals, I have been a favourite so many times and not won so to do that and prove to myself that I can do it, remove the pressure and win the gold, it's nice.
"I have an amazing training group. Me and Georgia, we work hard and we push each other at every practice - we are both in the shape of our lives," she added.
With large gaps opening up between the athletes in the closing stages, Addison Wiley of the USA finished third in a time of 1:58.36.
The victory marked five years since Hodgkinson won the European indoor title at the same venue just after turning 19, making her the youngest ever winner of the women's 800m at that event.
Since then, she has gone on to win three more European gold medals, but injury had always prevented the Briton from competing on the world indoor stage.
The 24-year-old is also the first Briton to take top spot in the women's 800m at these Championships and just the second European to do so since Formanova's triumph.