Kelly SOTHERTON

A native of the Isle of Wight, Kelly Sotherton showed potential to be a top class athlete early in her career but it was not until she was already in her mid-twenties that she emerged as a world class competitor. After breaking 6,000 points in the heptathlon for the first time in 2003 she made a considerable improvement in the early part of 2004 and started the Athens Olympics in the new found position of British number one heptathlete. After a solid first day of Olympic competition she produced a very poor performance in the javelin and it was only an inspired 800 metre run that allowed her to win the bronze medal. Her weakness in the javelin was to cost her dearly at both the 2005 World Championships and the 2006 European Championships, where medal winning positions were lost due to disastrous performances in the discipline, although she did triumph in the less rarified atmosphere of the Commonwealth Games. Her javelin weakness was mitigated by another barnstorming run in the 800 at the 2007 World Championships and she was able to add a World Championship bronze to her collection. A second Olympic medal was beyond her reach in 2008 and, after losing most of 2009 and 2010 due to injury, she decided to retire as a heptathlete with a view to continuing as a 400 metre specialist. After moderate success she announced that, as of late 2011, she would be returning to the heptathlon with a view to competing at the 2012 Olympics. A forthright and opinionated character, she had a bitter rivalry with Liudmyla Blonska after the latter's return to athletics after a doping ban.

Personal Bests: 400 – 52.19 (2008); Hep – 6547 (2005).