Keely Hodgkinson's first coach delivers heartfelt message after World Athletics Championship silver

Keely Hodgkinson’s first coach vividly remembers the first time she ever laid eyes on her.

Leigh Harriers stalwart Margaret Galvin, alongside her late husband Joe, has decades of experience of working at the famed athletics club, nurturing generations of young talent that have gone on to compete to the very highest level.

But her initial sighting of a nine-year-old Hodgkinson, who won a second consecutive World Athletics Championships 800m medal in Budapest on Sunday, just over a decade ago left a distinct impression that made Galvin convinced that she and her husband had a future star on their hands.

“She started in a school’s primary cross country race, that’s where I spotted her,” said Galvin, speaking from an event at the National Lottery-funded club on Friday morning.

“Then she joined Leigh Harriers and the rest is well-documented!

“She was just quicker than everybody else. She was just such a good, all-round athlete - you could see that from the way she ran. She was just so, so good. She was a very chatty, easy-going young lady, a very good trainer but also so competitive, none better really.

“When I first saw her I was compelled, I thought ‘I must do something, I must get this girl to join us - I can see that she’s going to be great.’

“She also had an interest in swimming; she was, and still is, a good swimmer. She would do sessions with her swimming club, and then come here and do some sessions with us.

“We won in the end, she decided to take up the running and fall back a little bit in the swimming.”

Leigh Harriers is just one of many clubs across the country to have benefitted from National Lottery funding, with players transforming athletics and para-athletics in the UK with more than £300million invested –