World Championships: Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson to face Georgia Hunter Bell in 800m in Tokyo

Keely Hodgkinson will face a challenge from Georgia Hunter Bell at the World Championships after her Great Britain team-mate opted to just compete in the 800m in Tokyo.

Hunter Bell was weighing up whether to enter both the 800m and 1500m at the event which is being staged in Japan’s capital from 13–21 September.

The 31-year-old recently met with British icon Dame Kelly Holmes, winner of 800m and 1500m golds at the 2004 Olympics, for advice on attempting a potential double.

However, she has selected to just race in the 800m after the Great Britain and Northern Ireland announced their team for Tokyo.

Olympic champion Hodgkinson, whose training partner is Hunter Bell, is the leading contender over 800m.

Hodgkinson, 23, returned from over a year out with a hamstring injury on 16 August with a world lead in Silesia and followed that up with a statement win at last week’s Diamond League meeting in Lausanne.

Hunter Bell, who broke the British 1500m record to win Olympic bronze on her debut last summer, has a personal best of 1:56.28 in the 800m.

She shone in the 800m as a junior before quitting the sport for five years.

Elsewhere, 1500m runner Jake Wightman has been included in the team for Tokyo despite missing last month’s trials at the UK Athletics Championships through illness.

Jazmin Sawyers will compete in the women’s long jump having returned from a year out with a ruptured Achilles.

Also included in the 66-athlete party announced by UK Athletics are Olympic silver medallist Matt Hudson-Smith, women’s sprint star Dina Asher-Smith and pole vaulter Molly Caudery.

Defending champions Katarina Johnson-Thompson (heptathlon) and Josh Kerr (1500m) have have been given wildcards by World Athletics.