Kenya's Odira wins world 800m gold

Kenya's Lilian Odira the new 800m world champion, taking the title over from her Kenyan compatriot Mary Moraa. [Courtesy]

Kenya's Lilian Odira overhauled Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson to win the women's 800 metres title at the world championships in Tokyo on Sunday.

Odira set a championship record-- and a massively improved personal best time -- of 1min 54.62sec for victory, beating by 0.06sec the previous best set by Jarmila Kratochvilova of the then-Czechoslavakia in Helsinki in 1983.

Georgina Hunter Bell took silver in a personal best of 1:54.90 in a photo finish with her British teammate and training partner Hodgkinson, who had to settle for bronze.

"This is my first world championships and I am really grateful to be leaving it as the world champion. It has been a long time coming," said Odira, who only made the semi-finals of the Paris Olympics and won silver in the African Games last year.

Hodgkinson, who has won silver medals at the last two world championships, was the big favourite coming into the race despite having had limited races in her legs this season.

The 23-year-old had admitted she was sweating on her place at the world championships until the last minute because she was sidelined for months by hamstring problems after winning Olympic gold in Paris last summer and only returned to action in August.

"It got away from me once again. I went and gave my best. I will go back and see what I could have done differently. I wanted gold so I am a bit disappointed," Hodgkinson said.

"I think if someone told me back in June, 'You are going to run, get a bronze medal', I would have taken it. But I came here as a favourite and I wanted to fulfil that."

In an extremely fast race, defending world champion Mary Moraa of Kenya raced into the lead, Hodgkinson hugging the curb on her shoulder.

At the bell, Hodgkinson was boxed in as Switzerland's Audrey Werro moved past her, but she battled her way down the inside lane to keep in contention.

With 200 metres to go Hodgkinson finally got past Moraa on the inside as the pack split.

There followed Hunter Bell and with 40 metres to run it looked like a 1-2 for Britain at Tokyo's National Stadium.

But they had not counted on the finishing speed of Odira, who came racing past them to take a shock gold.

It was a first global medal for the 26-year-old Kenyan, who had set her previous personal best of 1:56.52 when finishing second to Hodgkinson at last month's Silesia Diamond League meet.

"The first lap was very fast. I knew I had to push on the second one. It was so quick, Odira said. "I knew this race was going to be the fastest in the championships and I took advantage of it.

"I managed to have the most powerful finish and I got lucky to be going home with a gold medal. This medal means the world to me. It is for my sons, they are four and two. They are my motivation.