For a few seconds, it appeared the training partners and roommates here in Tokyo would score Great Britain’s first World Championships one-two in 18 years.
Hodgkinson was at the front and Hunter Bell on her shoulder down the final straight, with photographers ready to capture an all-time iconic image for British sport.
As it was, Kenya’s unheralded Lilian Odira nipped in to ruin the shot.
In keeping with a frustrating week for British Athletics, Odira outsprinted them both for a shock victory, while Hunter Bell pulled alongside Hodgkinson and then beat her to silver by the width of a chopstick.
The result consigned Great Britain & Northern Ireland to a first World Championships without a gold medal in 22 years, while their final tally of five is half of what they achieved both in the last World Championships in Budapest two years ago, and at last summer’s Olympics.
Locked in 🔐
The confirmed @_Novuna GB & NI Team for the 2025 World Championships 👊#WCHTokyo25 pic.twitter.com/7N7y26mtaI
— British Athletics (@BritAthletics) September 1, 2025
As metaphors go, the torrential rain that peltered down at the Japan National Stadium shortly after this race was rather fitting.
Hodgkinson put on a brave face on it but her immediate reaction to seeing the result on the scoreboard told the story.
The Olympic champion was gutted.
After a hamstring injury kept her off the track for 376 days, it was perhaps too much to expect her to be immediately great again.
Seb Coe had predicted Hodgkinson could become the greatest athlete of all time – British or otherwise – in the build-up.
Two comeback Diamond League wins last month were remarkable and suggested this was hers to lose.
In the end, however, that long lay-off took its toll, while it was later revealed Hodgkinson has been ill for the past four days – even if she shrugged that off in the aftermath.
“It has been an absolute shit show, honestly,” the 23-year-old said of her season.
“I think when you look at some of the greats in all sports, there are years where they haven’t done as well, or they’ve missed podiums, or they’ve missed a complete year.
“Somehow, I’ve managed to stay on that trajectory which I think is incredible. At the end of my career, I think people will remember what you’ve won, not what you’ve lost.
“This will just go down as part of my journey and on reflection, I’ll be happy.
“Not as happy as Hunter Bell.
Her fairytale story appeared to peak in Paris last summer, when she went from parkrun casual to Olympic 1500m bronze medallist in just four years.
But the 31-year-old opted to drop down from 1500m to 800m this summer and beat the Olympic champion by a hundredth of a second in a personal best time to win world silver.
Not bad.
“I look at what Keely’s achieved at 23 and I think we were running very similar times when we were, like, 11, 12, 13,” she said.
“If I went and did what Keely did in my young 20s, then maybe Trev [Painter, coach] would be able to do what he did with Keely, with me.
“At the same time, I wouldn’t have met my husband, I wouldn’t have experienced what I’ve experienced in life. So, I just think I’m on my own path and it’s cool.
”Odira broke the championship record in winning to complete an excellent week for Kenyan women, who have won all six golds at every distance from 800m through to the marathon.
It comes against the background of a brewing storm after the World Anti-Doping Agency alleged that Kenya’s Anti-Doping Agency is non-compliant with its code.
The east African nation will face consequences on October 2 unless certain conditions are met.
Meanwhile, British bosses admitted the rest of the world has caught up after two record-breaking global events.
Injuries to Matt Hudson-Smith, Josh Kerr and Molly Caudery dashed three medal chances, but a return of zero relay medals when they bagged five in Paris last year has badly hurt.
The women’s 4x100m relay team of Dina Asher-Smith, Amy Hunt, Desiree Henry and Daryll Neita came closest but finished fourth behind USA, Jamaica and Germany, while the men’s 4x400m team finished sixth.
“The marginal advantage we had has gone,” said performance director Paula Dunn.
“I would clearly say, before Budapest, five medals would have been average.
“We would have said five-seven is generally our range. But now, the boundaries change, and so their expectations are higher.
“Rightly so, because we want to be one of the best nations. But sometimes you have those years where it’s a rebuild year, and this for us is definitely that.”
In other Sunday events, Morgan Lake was seventh in the high jump and George Mills last in the 5000m.
Both were a footnote in comparison to a breath-taking 800m.
Follow all the action from the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 on BBC
