FOMO is Keely Hodgkinson's motivation ahead of assault on Euro gold

The 22-year-old Leigh Harrier, who is trained by Wigan duo Trevor Painter and his wife Jenny Meadows, will be defending the title she won in Munich two years ago.

And she's desperate to add to her tally at major championships which, at junior and senior level, is already into double figures.

"I would like to win as many medals as possible in my career," she said. "And I think if I was to miss it (Rome), I’d be missing out on an opportunity.

"I’d love to look back on my career and say I did this many European Championships and I won this many medals. I don’t want anything to go to waste.

"I also have a title to defend. This could be second outdoor, but also fourth European title including indoors (Torun 2021 and Istanbul 2023) and outdoors.

"So that’s a really good aim for me now. It’s a perfect amount of time away from the Olympics and a good chance to get some rounds practice."

Hodgkinson is champing at the bit to return to the track, with injury having kept her on the sidelines throughout winter.

"It comes at a good time for me," she acknowledged. "I’ve not done an indoor season, so I’m fresh going into the outdoor season, a bit more mentally ready. Ready to attack it from all ends."

Incredibly, it's almost two years since Hodgkinson recovered from the disappointment of being pipped to Commonwealth gold to become European champion - at the end of a very congested summer schedule.

"We’d already had the World Championship and the Commonwealth Games - being British - so we were definitely the most run down out of everyone," she told European Athletics. "But, I remember thinking I was annoyed I got silver at the Commonwealth Games - I thought I was going to win that day. So, I was like ‘right, you’ve got to win this one.’

"Going into the final, I was quite excited. I really get up for a final. I think they are really fun. That’s the stage where you can really showcase the best of you. I remember going into it and thinking I want to run it a bit differently.

"It was automatic that people thought I would just go from the front – I could have run it that way – but I didn’t want to be so predictable. "I wanted to try another way. I sat down with Jenny and Trevor and said ‘How would you feel if I just sat in the middle towards the back and let someone else take it?

"I feel that might have thrown people off a little at the time. So, I did that, I sat in around fifth for the first lap and slowly worked my way forward and in the last 200 just went for it and it worked out fine.

"I wanted to have some fun with it, finish off the season with something fun, a bit different, do something unexpected.

"Still coming away with the win, I think it’s a good experience to go though, knowing that going forward, I can run it a few different ways."