Keely Hodgkinson wins European Championship gold in 800m - despite falling ill and despite only deciding to compete 10 minutes before the start of the race

It was meant to be the banker of the sporting summer. Keely Hodgkinson's European superiority is such that her odds to defend her 800metres title were as short as 1-33 on.

Well, those who bet the family silver on a Hodgkinson gold were made to sweat on Wednesday night.

On paper, it should have been a two-lap procession. The Brit's personal best coming into the 800m final at the European Championships was more than three seconds faster than the rest of the field. Victory in Rome was seen as obvious as the fella down the road being a Catholic.

In reality, it was much more of a struggle for Hodgkinson, who fell ill in the hours leading up to the race.

The 22-year-old still led from gun to tape in the Stadio Olimpico, but she had to dig much deeper than she ever expected to emulate her win in Munich two years ago.

Her time of 1min 58.65sec was slower than her run in Tuesday's semi-final and was just 0.14sec clear of second-placed Slovakian Gabriela Gajanova, who pushed her all the way.

As Hodgkinson crossed the line, she could barely celebrate, puffing out her cheeks in relief and only just mustering enough energy to hold up a Union flag on the floor. Instead of raising a glass, she went straight to bed.

'It's the worst I've felt in a race,' admitted Hodgkinson. 'It's not been the greatest 24 hours. I felt a little bit of a sore threat and sniffles yesterday in the warm-up and then it got worse. I had Vitamin C, aspirin, nose spray, paracetamol. Just trying my best to get rid of it.

'I've been umming and ahing all day about where to race. If it's going to put me in a hole for 10 days ahead of British trials, is it really worth it?

'I only decided to run 10 minutes before the call room. So I'm quite proud of myself for going on the start line and really attacking the gold given the circumstances.

'I'd be disappointed if I didn't try, so I wanted to try. It was just about finding a way to win. If they were going to beat me, they had to catch me.

'I had to believe in the fact that I am the defending champion. I have trained ill before. When I finished, it was just relief. I would have been disappointed not to win so I was just happy.'

Hodgkinson's hard-fought victory was only Britain's second individual gold after Sunday's 100m win by Dina Asher-Smith, who also added a 4x100m relay gold on Wednesday night.

Now, having conquered the continent again, Hodgkinson wants to rule the world for the first time.

Despite her tender age, it is still something of an anomaly that she is yet to win a global gold medal.

After collecting a breakthrough silver at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, Hodgkinson was disappointed to twice end up with the same colour medal at the last two World Championships.

But she will be the favourite to land the big prize in Paris given how she performed so far this year, forgetting last night's under-the-weather effort.

Hodgkinson was unable to run for nine weeks over the winter because of a knee injury, a spell on the sidelines she described as 'torture'.

Yet she believes she is better than ever and has already gone almost a second faster than her nearest challenger, Kenyan Mary Moraa, who beat her to world gold in Budapest last summer. America's Olympic champion Athing Mu, meanwhile, has also not competed since last September because of hamstring issues.

It means Hodgkinson is arguably Britain's best bet to win an Olympic athletics gold this summer – something they failed to achieve in Tokyo for the first time since Atlanta 1996.

'I feel like I'm in the shape of my life,' she added. 'I have just got to get rid of this little thing and then get back in the training all should be well.

'Paris is a great city, full of luxury, fashion, art, sport, a beautiful place to have it. I feel really confident and just want to get out do my best.'

Britain’s second gold of the final night – and fourth of the week in Rome – came when Asher-Smith, Desiree Henry, Amy Hunt, Daryll Neita stormed to glory in the women’s 4x100m relay in a time of 41.91sec.

Meanwhile, Norwegian superstar Jakob Ingebrigtsen sent a warning to Britain’s absent world champion Josh Kerr as he destroyed the European field to defend his 1500m title.