Tokyo 2020 hero Keely Hodgkinson’s old PE teacher knew Olympic silver medallist was going to be a star aged just 11

TEENAGE sensation Keely Hodgkinson was an Olympic star in the making at the age of just 11.

The 19-year-old 800 metre silver medallist smashed Kelly Holmes’ British record of 1.55:88 on her way to second place in the final on Monday.

To some she has come out of nowhere – but it has not surprised her old teachers.

Simon Rigby, who taught Hodgkinson PE at Fred Longworth High School in Tyldesley, Greater Manchester, knew she was something special on her third day.

Rigby, 45, told SunSport: “We always knew she was going to be a good runner.

“We do something called the Cooper 12-minute run to test aerobic strength, and on her third day of school she smashed it.

“She was just whipping round the track. We knew she had a lot of potential

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“We’d take her to Wigan Schools competitions and she was better than everyone – streets ahead.

“She was wiping the floor with runners an age group up. We did think she could possibly run in the Olympics, even at that age.

“We always thought she’d go and make something of herself, she just had that desire.”

School teachers famously hate things being late – but on this occasion Rigby was quite happy to see it.

He reckons the delaying of the Tokyo Games due to coronavirus actually helped Hodgkinson, whose younger siblings still attend the school.

Rigby said: “When the Olympics were delayed a few of the staff thought that it might actually benefit Keely.

“Fate has played its hand brilliantly. What she did was utterly remarkable.”

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Hodgkinson proudly displays her Olympic silver medal[/caption]

She will have also made her old English teacher proud by taking on Piers Morgan on Twitter, pointing out that the self-appointed stickler had spelled her name wrong when he ‘congratulated’ her.

Great British athletics fans hope Hodgkinson, from Atherton, near Leigh, will be teaching the rest of the world lessons for years to come.

And she was an Olympic runner at school – sort of.

She and Ella Toone – another former ‘Freddies’ pupil who was in the Team GB football squad – unsurprisingly dominated sports day.

Rigby, 45, explained: “We had to limit people to one event and a relay – if we hadn’t Keely would have won every event. She was that good.

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Hodgkinson (left) couldn’t believe it after her superb run for silver[/caption]

“In the end she had to settle for just the 800m and the 4×100 relay. Ella did those too, she was a couple of years above Keely but won them both.”

Toone posted a picture on social media of the pair at sports day, and then recreated it in the Olympic Village before Hodgkinson’s epic run.

Rigby added: “It’s phenomenal that this comprehensive school has churned out three Olympic athletes (Canoeist and former pupil Paul Ratcliffe won silver in 2000).

“She’s got that Freddies grit, it’s what growing up in a school like ours gives you.

“British Athletics should latch on to that.

“Our motto is ‘Belonging, Engaging, Succeeding’ and that is what she has done.

“It was a pleasure to have her at our school.”