Fast Women: Hunter Bell, Hodgkinson, and Battocletti earn their first world titles
Mackay, Hiltz, and Wiley win medals for Team USA.
Issue 400
Georgia Hunter Bell’s patience and pacing pays off in the 1500m
Great Britain’s Georgia Hunter Bell, 32, showed a lot of promise as a young runner, but in 2017, after a rough experience in the NCAA, she quit running and began a career in cybersecurity. It wasn’t until five years later that she got the itch to try competing at a high level again. As recently as two years ago, she was having to beg meet directors to let her into races. Then she won Olympic bronze in the 1500m in 2024, and silver in the 800m at the World Outdoor Championships in 2025. And on Sunday, she became a world champion.
The 1500m final at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Toruń, Poland, was an interesting one as Ethiopia’s Birke Haylom jumped out to the front around 200 meters into the race, ran a 30-second lap, and quickly gapped the field. Haylom hit 800m in 2:05.30, with a three-second lead. But over the last three laps, the chase pack, led by Hunter Bell, began to reel her in. And with 150m to go, the lead group caught and dropped Haylom.
Catching Haylom was like a group project, and Hunter Bell was rewarded for her patience and her initiative in leading the charge. No one could hang with Hunter Bell as she ran a 29.34-second final 200m to win the race in 3:58.53. Australia’s Jessica Hull bounced back impressively after running the 1500m prelims on Friday and earning bronze in the 3,000m on Saturday. She finished second in an Oceanian record of 3:59.45.
Nikki Hiltz was fifth at the bell and had their work cut out for them on the final lap. They easily caught Haylom, but running down France’s Agathe Guillemot, an excellent kicker, was a bigger challenge. In the final strides, Hiltz willed themself onto the podium, edging out Guillemot for bronze, 3:59.68 to 3:59.71. “I have a really good last 50m,” they said after the race. “But I think I even have a really good last 10m.”
Though Guillemot narrowly missed out on the podium, she still came away with a national record. Haylom hung on to take fifth in 4:01.34.
Team USA has earned a fair number of world indoor medals in the 800m (nine) and 3,000m (11), but 1500m medals have been harder to come by over the years. In 2024 Hiltz earned silver in the 1500m and Emily Mackay earned bronze. But before that, the only U.S. athlete to medal on the women’s side was Regina Jacobs, who won gold in 1995 and 2003. (And then she tested positive for a designer steroid in 2003 and was banned the following year.)
Running in her first global championship on the track, Gracie Morris had a strong showing. In the first round, she ended up in a heat with the eventual gold and silver medalist, but she held her own, stuck right on them, and advanced to the final, where she finished seventh in 4:03.75. Until now, she hasn’t been able to get into a lot of the top races, so she lacked international experience, but she’s learning quickly. (Results | 1500m replay)
Keely Hodgkinson leaves no doubt in the 800m, Addy Wiley earns bronze
The 800m final was a one-woman race for first and a three-woman race for the remaining two medals. Great Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson led wire-to-wire to win her first world indoor title in a championship record of 1:55.30.
Audrey Werro pulled away from Addy Wiley and Ethiopia’s Nigist Getachew over the final 150m to earn silver in a Swiss record of 1:56.64. And Wiley moved by Getachew with about 120m to go and held on to finish third in 1:58.36, running her second personal best in two days.
Hodgkinson is such an accomplished runner that it’s hard to believe she had never won a world title before, indoors or out. Thanks to injuries, this was her first time even making it to the starting line at world indoors. Despite that, she came into the meet as the heaviest favorite in all of the middle-distance/distance events. Carrying that much pressure can be tough, but at 24, she handles it like a veteran. She hit 200m in 27.26, 400m in 56.95 (29.69 split), 600m in 1:26.46 (29.51), and then picked up the pace to cover the final 200m in 28.84 seconds.
Last year at world indoors, Werro finished fourth, missing out on the medals by 0.01 seconds. This time, there was no doubt that she belonged on the podium. All three 800m medalists are young, but Werro, who was five days shy of her 22nd birthday, is the youngest.
And Wiley, 22, has long shown incredible promise, but this was the first time everything came together for her both at USAs to earn a spot on the team, and again in the rounds to earn a spot in the final. At USAs, she lowered her PR to 1:59.43. In the semifinals, she broke it again, running 1:58.75, and one day later, she shaved off another 0.39 seconds. She joins Ajee’ Wilson (2016, 2018, and 2022), Chanelle Price (2014), Erica Moore (2012), Alysia Montaño (2010) and Joetta Clark (1993, 1997) as the sixth U.S. woman to earn an 800m medal at world indoors.
Hodgkinson had to hold off on fully celebrating her win as she returned to the track less than an hour later to anchor Great Britain’s 4x400m relay team. She split 50.10 seconds and helped the team to a fifth-place finish.
A week after falling in the prelims and failing to advance to the NCAA final, Penn State’s Hayley Kitching ran two excellent rounds to make it to the final, where she finished fifth in 2:00.50. The 21-year-old handled the disappointment of NCAAs with such class and then made the most of her opportunity in Toruń.
Valery Tobias’ world indoor experience was a bit like Kitching’s NCAA experience. She ran what appeared to be a strong race to finish second in her first-round heat, but then she found out she was DQed for stepping on the lane line more than once. I saw the results before I saw the race, and I wondered if she cut in too soon or made a blatant mistake. But the DQ wasn’t apparent to most people until after the fact. This is the level of error we’re talking about here.
She did not gain a major advantage, but officials need to draw the line somewhere, and she unfortunately ended up on the wrong side of it. Hopefully she can now channel any frustration into an excellent outdoor season. (Results | Replay of 800m final)
Nadia Battocletti wins her first global title, Emily Mackay earns 3,000m silver
Italy’s Nadia Battocletti, 25, has proven in recent years that she’s an excellent championship performer. In 2024, she earned an Olympic silver medal in the 10,000m, and at last September’s World Outdoor Championships, she won silver in the 10,000m and bronze in the 5,000m. On Saturday in Poland, Battocletti finally had her opportunity to stand atop the podium on a global stage.
The first 12 laps of the 3,000m included a lot of jostling, as no one wanted to set a quick pace. All 15 competitors wanted to be in a good position, and there are only so many available. Four minutes into the race, Spain’s Marta Garcia was encroaching on Jessica Hull’s space. The Australian tried to hold her ground but lost her balance in the process. She put out a hand, and it looked like she pushed Ethiopia’s Freweyni Hailu down, but watching the replay, it seems the fall had more to do with their feet tangling.
Garcia was ultimately disqualified for starting the chain reaction. Hailu went down hard, but thanks to the relatively slow pace, she was able to work her way back up to the pack. But when it came time to kick, she didn’t have her usual gears. The fall robbed her of a fair shot at seeing what she could do here, and the sport is just really cruel like that sometimes. Hailu came in as a two-time champion, having won the 1500m in 2024 and the 3,000m in 2025, so she was a strong medal favorite.
The racing really began with about 700m to go, when the three eventual medalists moved to the front. Hull went to the lead with 300m to go, but Battocletti overtook her with just over 100m remaining. No one could match Battocletti’s finishing speed, and she won in 8:57.64. Mackay caught Hull in the homestretch and they had a close battle to the finish, with Mackay getting the edge, 8:58.12 to 8:58.18. Battocletti covered her final 200m in 28.54 seconds and her last 400m in 57.0.
Though Battocletti’s win seemed foreseeable from afar, she said afterward that due to her recent circumstances, she wasn’t expecting this result. “I surprised myself especially because I finished Ramadan just two days ago,” she said. “I also recently finished my exams, so it was a difficult time for me. I knew I was in good shape but I was still surprised when I crossed the finish line.”
Ethiopia’s Aleshign Baweke took fourth in 9:00.26, and Turkey’s Silan Ayyildiz (fifth, 9:02.11) ran down Hailu (sixth, 9:02.41) in the homestretch. I was impressed by Ayyildiz, who finished higher at world indoors than she did in any individual event at the NCAA Indoor Championships one week earlier. And at NCAAs, she had a tough schedule, running the 800m leg of the winning DMR, two rounds of the mile, and the 3,000m final. The other NCAA runner in this race, Sweden’s Vera Sjöberg, also had a strong showing, finishing seventh in 9:03.57.
Margot Appleton finished 14th in 9:12.57 and gained important international championship racing experience.
Mackay already had a 1500m bronze from world indoors in 2024, and she was pleased to move up the podium this time out. U.S. women winning distance medals in outdoor global championships is still relatively rare, but they have a nice streak going in the 3,000 at world indoors. A woman from the U.S. has now medaled in the 3,000m at the last four editions of the meet, with Elle St. Pierre earning gold in 2024 and silver in 2022 and Shelby Houlihan earning silver in 2025. (Results | Race highlights)
Other World Indoor Notes
Ethiopia tried to send 10 athletes to compete in Poland, but only six of them made it, due to visa troubles. Tsige Duguma, the 2024 world indoor 800m champion, was among those unable to travel. Also left home were Saron Berhe and Haregeweyn Kalayu, both scheduled to run in the women’s 1500m, and one male 1500m runner. The Athletic has a little more (subscription required). Freweyni Hailu’s bad luck in the 3,000m was certainly a factor, but this was an uncharacteristically poor championship for the athletes who did compete, as Ethiopia earned no medals.
Sunday was a great day for both the M11 Track Club and Great Britain. In a 30-minute span, M11 teammates Georgia Hunter Bell and Keely Hodgkinson won gold, and they celebrated with Molly Caudery, who won gold in the pole vault.
With Emily Mackay’s silver and Nikki Hiltz and Addy Wiley’s bronze medals, this was the first time ever that the U.S. has medaled in the 800m, 1500m, and 3,000m at a world indoor championship on the women’s side.
After winning the 800m at the NCAA Indoor Championships for Clemson less than a week earlier, Kenya’s Gladys Chepngetich struggled at worlds. She finished fifth of five in her first-round 800m heat, running 2:02.23. She explained to Jonathan Gault that after NCAAs, which were in Arkansas, she had to travel to Washington, DC, to get her visa. The process was delayed, so she spent two days there, missed her original flight to Poland, and arrived only the night before her race.
I appreciated this part of Jessica Hull’s post race quotes after the 3,000m: “If there is a race for medals anywhere in the world, I will be there!”
After the second round of the 800m, Addy Wiley answered a question about her training setup that seemed to suggest that she’s now coached by her mother, or self coached. But when asked for clarification after the final, she gave a response that didn’t fully clear things up.
Emma Grace Hurley sets an American 8K record in Chicago
After a frustrating experience at the USATF Half Marathon Championships, Emma Grace Hurley bounced back with a fantastic run at Sunday’s Shamrock Shuffle in Chicago. In cold and windy conditions, she ran 24:29 and shaved seven seconds off of Deena Kastor’s 21-year-old American 8K record, set at the same race in 2005. Kastor was on hand to watch her record go down and celebrate with Hurley.
Hurley set out at a blazing pace, hitting 5K in 15:07, which is significantly faster than her PR, and she held on to average 4:56/mile for 8K. Her 5K split bodes well for her chances at the USATF 5K Championships, which she plans to race on May 2 in Indianapolis.
The race attracted a deep field, with Karissa Schweizer taking second in 24:56 and Courtney Frerichs finishing third in 26:08. Apparently this was Schweizer’s first road race ever longer than one mile. She announced last week that she has left the Bowerman Track Club/Swoosh TC Eugene hub, she’s moved back to Portland, and she’s being coached by UNC coach Chris Miltenberg. She’s been training with her partner, Kellen Manley, and Emily Infeld, who is also coached by Miltenberg. (Results)
Other News and Podcast Highlights
I initially missed this amusing moment from the NYC Half. Hellen Obiri was running on Agnes Ngetich’s right shoulder when her hand or watch briefly got caught in Ngetich’s hair. The clip is viewable here.
South Africa’s Dom Scott announced that after 10 years of running professionally for Adidas, she’s moving on to a new chapter with her running.
Nell Rojas announced that she has signed with Altra.
I received a comment and an email from people who were unhappy with aspects of what I wrote about Fotyen Tesfay’s marathon debut last week. I stand by everything I was trying to say, but when I looked back, I don’t think I did the best job with the wording or backing up my points in the rush of last Sunday. (It was an unexpected news item on a busy weekend.) So I apologize for that. My preferred way to cover such things is to write something, and then sleep on it and see if it makes sense the next day. But that wasn’t possible. One person told me I wrote that Tesfay was probably not doping. I definitely did not write that, because I don’t believe that. But that’s a good sign my wording was not clear. (And this is not me saying she is doping. I don’t know.) I think unprecedented performances need to be viewed with a certain level of skepticism given the history of our sport. It’s just that jumping straight to “she’s obviously doping,” based solely on the time, makes me uncomfortable. And I think we’re going to miss celebrating some clean women’s accomplishments if that becomes the standard mode of operation, especially because women’s distance performances have been improving at a mind-blowing rate across all levels of the sport. I appreciated Jonathan Gault’s piece for LetsRun, which provides more context about Tesfay’s career and training setup. It proves nothing either way, but it’s good background. And I was interested to hear on the Podium Athletics podcast that the commentary team covering the race didn’t even know about the record attempt.
Earlier this month, Abby Shoemaker, 26, qualified for the 2028 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials less than seven years after her mother, Perry Shoemaker, qualified for the 2020 Trials, at age 48. Sarah Lorge Butler wrote about them for Runner’s World.
I haven’t yet had a chance to read it, but I was interested to hear that Alisa Harvey, a long time star of the sport who represented the U.S. at many world championships, recently published a book called All My Trials. The promotional copy makes it sound like she overcame a lot along the way, and I’m looking forward to checking it out.
David Monti wrote about Megan Keith’s strong half marathon debut at the NYC Half. Keith, 23, who represents Scotland, finished third in 1:07:13.
There weren’t enough relevant podcasts last week for them to get their own section, but Kellyn Taylor talked about her strong run at the LA Marathon, becoming a firefighter, and being unsponsored on I’ll Have Another. And she said she’d still like to break her 2:24:29 marathon PR. Emily Venters was on NYRR’s Set the Pace podcast with former NFL player Justin Britt, because she is coaching him. Venters, who had a rough marathon debut in Chicago, said she’ll probably do another marathon this summer. And Jadyn Keeler, of the University of North Dakota, was on the Athletics Ontario Running Podcast.
Additional Results
Anna Oeser won Trials of Miles’ Project 13.1 at New York’s Rockland Lake State Park, running a PR of 1:10:35. The race attracted a deep field, with Canadians Elissa Legault (1:11:25) and Florence Caron (1:11:49) taking second and third and 12 athletes breaking 74 minutes. (Results)
Tessa Barrett won the DC Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon by more than five minutes, running 1:12:16.
Former University of Virginia standout Jenny Schilling won the Shamrock Run Fest 8K in Portland, Oregon, running 26:03. Her prize? Thirteen cases of beer. (Results)
Sophie King won the Shamrock 8K in Virginia Beach, running 27:13. Anna Benedettini won the half marathon in 1:14:11. (Results)
Courtney Dauwalter was planning to run the Tenerife Bluetrail 110K in the Canary Islands on Friday, but a storm canceled the race. She made a quick pivot and got herself to Spain in time for Saturday’s Chianti 120K, which she won (11:31:55) after a great battle with Norway’s Yngvild Kaspersen (second, 11:33:34) and Rachel Entrekin (third, 11:38:13). (Results | Race recap from iRunFar)
Michelle Rohl, 60, and Great Britain’s Clare Elms, 62, have waged quite the back-and-forth over the 60-64 age-group world records during the indoor season. Rohl set the 3,000m record in December, Elms lowered it in January, and Rohl reclaimed it earlier this month. And things have gone similarly in the mile. Rohl ran 5:26.65 at the end of January to break the record, and Elms lowered it to 5:25.07 11 days later. And on Friday, Rohl reclaimed it, running 5:23.98 at the NYRR Night at the Races Champs. And given that it’s tough to find indoor races this time of year, it appears that Rohl will keep these records for a little while. (Results)
Assuming I didn’t mess up the count somewhere along the way, this is the 400th issue of Fast Women. I probably should have done something special to mark the occasion, but the timing didn’t work out. I’m excited about my next project, though, and I’ve already started interviews for that, so much more to come. Thanks to everyone who’s been part of this for any length of time, and I am endlessly grateful to everyone who has provided financial support via Venmo or Patreon to help keep it going.
I hope you all have a good week.
Alison
Issue 400 is a massive milestone — congrats on that alone! And what a week to land on it with Hodgkinson finally getting her world title after all those close calls. That hug photo says everything. The depth of American women at these championships has been something else too. Great coverage as always!
Congrats on your 400th newsletter and many, many thanks for all the hard work you put in to keeping all of us informed!