Keely Hodgkinson entered the European Indoor Championships fully aware of her status as the undisputed favourite, so far ahead of the rest of the field that probably only a mistake could have toppled her.
The pressure that comes with excellence did not faze her at all. On Sunday she comfortably defended her European indoor title and further underlined her dominance over the continent.
Having marked her arrival at the top of the sport two years ago by winning her first European Indoor gold medal at 19, Hodgkinson is only the second woman to defend an 800m European indoor title.
Moments later, Jazmin Sawyers, Great Britain’s team captain in Istanbul, produced the performance of her life in the women’s long jump, shocking the field by crossing seven metres for the first time in her career and becoming champion. “I’ve never won anything,” an exuberant Sawyers told the BBC. “I’m still in shock.