BBC snubs Keely Hodgkinson’s world-record tilt for re-run of Flog It! | Keely Hodgkinson

The BBC has snubbed a world document try by Olympic golden woman Keely Hodgkinson on its major terrestrial channels in favour of exhibiting a movie it aired as just lately in October 2024 and a repeat of Flog It!

It had been hoped inside athletics circles that the BBC would grant prime time to Hodgkinson’s try on the 800m world indoor document on Saturday – particularly after she attracted 9.1m viewers when successful gold in Paris and went on to win the Sports activities Persona of the Yr award in December.

Nevertheless when she makes an attempt the document at 4.30pm on Saturday, BBC1 will likely be exhibiting the weekly soccer outcomes round-up present, Ultimate Rating, whereas BBC2 will present the movie Mr Malcolm’s Checklist earlier than switching to Flog It, a present that was discontinued in Might 2020.

What makes the choice extra shocking is that the BBC has truly acquired the TV rights to the Keely Klassic, a brand new occasion in Birmingham the place Hodgkinson will headline and try to interrupt a document that has stood for 23 years. Nevertheless it has determined to relegate it to its iPlayer streaming platform.

Whereas some viewers could benefit from the sight of seeing the Flog It! crew trying to find collectibles at London Zoo once more, athletics insiders are privately shocked on the choice. Some have identified that exhibiting Hodgkinson’s try initially of Ultimate Rating, as an example, would have attracted tons of of 1000’s of informal followers to the game.

It’s not as if Hodgkinson is just not a significant star both. Final yr after the Paris Olympics, the BBC revealed a press launch that said: “Keely Hodgkinson’s gold medal within the ladies’s 800m last was essentially the most watched occasion with 9.1million viewers on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.” The BBC confirmed the vast majority of the 14 Diamond League occasions on BBC2 final yr as nicely.

A number of different British feminine Olympic stars together with the 1500m bronze medallist, Georgia Bell, may also be competing in Birmingham and shunting the occasion to the BBC iPlayer dangers raises questions concerning the company’s dedication to selling ladies’s sport. Within the BBC’s Royal Constitution there’s additionally a requirement to “broaden sports activities protection, to higher help sports activities which presently obtain much less broadcast protection”.

A BBC supply stated that the company needed to make tough selections day by day and never the whole lot could possibly be broadcast on linear TV. They added that the Keely Klassic could be obtainable on BBC iPlayer, making it simply accessible to an enormous digital viewers throughout the UK.