Keely Hodgkinson, Dina Asher-Smith and KJT among 2025 new

Well-earned MBEs for services to athletics for KJT, Asher-Smith and Hodgkinson as para athletes Hannah Cockroft, Sammi Kinghorn and Sabrina Fortune are also honoured

Keely Hodgkinson, Dina Asher-Smith and Katarina Johnson-Thompson have been rewarded with an MBE in the King’s new year honours list.

The trio have all won global titles in the past with Hodgkinson taking Olympic gold this year.

“It’s so amazing to be recognised and to have been given this award,” said the 800m runner. “This year has been incredibly special for so many reasons and it’s such a nice surprise to have been honoured in this way. Bring on 2025.”

Johnson-Thompson won world heptathlon gold in 2019 and 2023 and she has been honoured after a year that saw her win Olympic silver in Paris.

Perhaps the most overdue reward was for Geraldina Rachel Asher-Smith (or Dina for short), as she won a world 200m title in 2019 and is the British record-holder for 100m and 200m.

Wheelchair racing Hannah Cockroft and Sammi Kinghorn have both been honoured in the past but in this latest list Cockroft is now a CBE while Kinghorn has been given an OBE.

Fellow Paralympian Sabrina Fortune has also been awarded an MBE after winning gold in Paris in the F20 shot put.

More than 1200 recipients receive honours this year across all sectors, with particular commendation to role models in sport, healthcare, academia and voluntary service.

These include Sandra Hardacre, who was honoured for her services to volunteering in Scottish athletics. Mervyn Thompson, parkrun director of the Portrush event in Northern Ireland, has also been recognised for services in the local community.

There were honours for former athletes too. These included Helen Glover, the Olympic rowing champion who ran for England as a teenage cross-country runner, as she received an OBE.

The full new year honours list is published on gov.uk. Anyone can nominate someone for an honour. If you know someone who has achieved fantastic things worthy of recognition, go to gov.uk/honours to find out more about how you can put them forward.