Georgia Hunter Bell outruns Odira to win Commonwealth Games 800m gold

There are late developers in sport, and then there is the brilliant Georgia Hunter Bell, who continues to defy sporting gravity at the age of 32.And on Friday night under the Glasgow lights, she gave a tactical masterclass to outwit – and then outpace – the 800m world champion Lilian Odira and complete her set of global medals.Incredibly it was only two years ago that she made her international debut here in Scotland’s biggest city. Back then she was a part-time runner working in tech. Now, staggeringly, she is one Britain’s biggest sports stars and the proud owner of Olympic, World, European and now Commonwealth medals.“There were some tears on the podium,” Hunter Bell said afterwards. “That showed me how much that meant.”Hunter Bell’s story loses nothing in its retelling. As a teenager she was among the best runners in Britain. Then came a series of injuries, setbacks and heartaches. By her mid-20s she had retired. Then came a second act not even Hollywood would dare write.It started with long cycle rides during lockdown, then a series of parkrun in Bushy Park. By November 2022 Hunter Bell had got in contact with her old coaches, Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows, who guided Keely Hodgkinson to glory and had regarded Hunter Bell as “the one who got away”. Soon her injuries were long behind her – along with most of her opponents.By March 2024 she was wearing her first GB vest in the world indoor championships in Glasgow. That August she won an Olympic 1500m bronze medal in a British record 3min 52.61sec. Since then she has given up her job and got even better. This medal, in an England vest, was her sixth time on a global podium.“Lots of people reflect on being a kid and doing it for the kid version of yourself,” she said after. “But I actually think of the young woman version of myself, who was like 23, 24, and gave up and really didn’t know what she was doing with her life.“I feel sorry for that girl, and then I feel proud of making it through that and coming back here,” she added. “That’s what makes me emotional.”Georgia Hunter Bell crosses the finishing line well clear of Lilian Odira and Sarah Billings. Photograph: Kin Cheung/APGoing into the final, most thought that Odira, the Kenyan who had defied Hunter Bell and Hodgkinson to win gold at last year’s world championships, was the one to beat.But Hunter Bell had other ideas, leading from tape to gun, to take an easy victory in 1min 59.51sec. Odira took silver, more than a second back, with the Australian Sarah Billings claiming bronze.“I felt calm,” Hunter Bell said. “I really feel like I was composed. It didn’t go to plan as in the race. I did not think I would go gun-to-tape and lead it for the whole thing. I wanted to lead with 200m to go. But I found myself at the front, and so I thought ‘I’ll just control it, keep it relaxed, not too fast’, and then when I feel that pressure on me with the move being made, I’ll be ready to go.”The thing is nobody came. They were through halfway in a slow 60.32sec, and the race had barely sped up when Hunter Bell finally powered clear with 200m to go. At this point Odira was five metres back and had no chance of closing.“I’m really happy with that, it worked perfectly,” Hunter Bell said. “I really felt my legs were going in the last few steps and I couldn’t see where anyone was, but the crowd really pulled me home. It was great.”There were also two silver medals for England on the night through Emily Newnham and Jake Minshull in the women’s and men’s 400m hurdles. But this was a night that belonged to Hunter Bell.Elsewhere, Adaejah Hodge of the British Virgin Islands gave a small hint of her talent by storming to the women’s 200m title in 22.07sec.The 20-year-old has already run 10.63sec for the 100m this year, making her the fifth fastest woman in history. For good measure she has a personal best of 21.68 for the 200m, putting her joint-ninth of all time. But on a cold night in Glasgow, a more modest time was enough as she took gold ahead of of Trinidad and Tobago.In the men’s javelin, Sri Lanka’s Rumesh Pathirage continued his annus mirabilis by winning gold with a huge throw of 89.75m, ahead of India’s Olympic champion, Neeraj Chopra.