British middle-distance star Keely Hodgkinson will break new ground when she makes her first ever Wanda Diamond League appearance in the women’s 400m in Rome on June 4.
Olympic champion Hodgkinson has dominated the women’s 800m in the Diamond League in recent years, picking up nine victories since her debut in 2021 and winning the series title in 2021 and 2023.
At this year’s Golden Gala Pietro Mennea in Rome, she will open a new chapter of her Diamond League story when she lines up in the 400m for the very first time in athletics’ premier one-day series.
Hodgkinson turned heads over one lap at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Poland last month, when she ran 50.10 in the 4x400m final, clocking the fastest lap of the entire race.
The time was all the more impressive as it came just an hour after she won the gold medal in the 800m with a championship record of 1:55.30.
That win crowned a stunning indoor season for the British star, who also set a new 800m indoor world record of 1:54.87 in Liévin in February.
Rome is the third Diamond League meeting for which Hodgkinson has signed up so far in 2026, with the 24-year-old also set to race the 800m in Eugene and Stockholm.
Last season saw her mark an emphatic return from injury on the Diamond League stage with two impressive victories in Silesia and Lausanne.
Rome is the fourth leg of the 2026 Wanda Diamond League, which begins in Shanghai/Keqiao on May 16 and ends at the two-day series final in Brussels on September 4-5.
The series unites the biggest names in track and field in some of the world’s most iconic arenas, crossing four continents and 15 cities over the course of the season.
