Mary Moraa's rival announces return just in time for World Championships battle

Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson will make her long-awaited return to the athletics scene next month, when she lines up for the Lausanne Diamond League meeting on Wednesday, 20 August.

The 23-year-old has not raced since winning gold at last year’s games in Paris, and saw her two recent attempts at getting back to competitive action after a hamstring injury sustained in February delayed.

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“Third time’s a charm,” the British wrote on Instagram following the Thursday, 25 July announcement that her season debut would come in Lausanne, twenty-plus days to the start of the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.

Hodgkinson, who missed out on a World Championships gold two years ago when she was outclassed by Kenya’s Mary Moraa, had been scheduled to make a return to track in the Stockholm Diamond League meet in June, only to announce a minor setback in her recovery journey.

The race would have seen her battle with Olympic rivals Tsige Duguma and Moraa, who won silver and bronze last year.

Her second comeback attempt came a couple of weeks ago when she announced to be among athletes taking part in a home London Diamond League, only for that bid to be dropped once again.

Mary Moraa's British rival postpones 2025 season opener

A statement from Hodgkinson’s team said her return in London had come slightly too soon, and promised of further updates on her season.

It well seems her comeback will be in Switzerland, where an epic battle awaits.

Of the athletes already confirmed for the 13th leg of the Diamond League circuit, Hodgkinson, also a European Championships double gold medalist, will come up against the aforementioned Duguma, as well as fellow British stars Georgia Hunter Bell and Jemma Reekie.

Moraa, on the other hand, is yet to confirm her next race, but on Tuesday, 25 July led the women’s 4x400m relay to a national record time of 3:27.5 in the Athletics Kenya (AK) trials.

Mary Moraa explains emotional reason behind sluggish start to the season

The performance came just days after she had clocked her 400m season best at the KBC Nacht Night of athletics event in Belgium on Saturday, 19 July.

Comes just in time for what many hope will be a big battle in September.