Keely Hodgkinson should lead from the front if she wants to win Olympic 800m gold, says Iwan Thomas.

Hodgkinson claimed silver in the 800m at Tokyo 2020, aged just 19, with champion Athing Mu of the USA not present in Paris due to injury.

Mu fell during the US trials to put the 22-year-old in pole position to add Olympic gold to her collection.

Olympic silver medallist and discovery+ pundit Thomas said: “In any event you can’t really control your opponents.

“But Keely Hodgkinson knows in the past few finals she has been up against a formidable athlete in Mu, but she is not going to be there. 

“Keely just has to keep her focus, keep working hard and do her own thing. I think she will front run, I think she will want to stay out of trouble.”

Hodgkinson is a two-time European champion but up against the rest of the world’s best she has never come out on top.

At the Olympics and the 2022 World Championships, she finished behind Mu, while in 2023 in Budapest, Mary Moraa of Kenya got the better of her in the world final.

Moraa also beat Hodgkinson at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham but that is despite the Wigan-born athlete having a personal best that is almost a second faster than Moraa’s.

Thomas added: “I think her coach Trevor [Painter] will just say to her to just go and do your thing. 

“If she treats it almost as a time trial, she is almost unbeatable.

“But the danger with the Olympic Games is there could be someone from a small nation who could come out of nowhere. 

“One thing you have got with Keely Hodgkinson is she is a fighter, she leaves it all out on the track and she is so determined, it will be gold or nothing for her. 

“She will be devastated to get another silver medal and I am backing her to get gold.”

Watch every moment of Olympic Games Paris 2024 live only on discovery+, the streaming home of the Olympics