Sotherton 'finally happy' after being awarded third Olympic bronze

Sotherton hung up the spikes in 2012 with one bronze medal to her name, picked up at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games in the heptathlon.

That became two with the news of her 2008 Beijing 4x400m relay team being upgraded to the same medal after the disqualification of two teams following anti-doping tests.

Now the 40-year-old has a third medal to celebrate with another heptathlon bronze in Beijing, with Russian Tatyana Chernova having been stripped due to testing positive for a steroid.

And after battling through injury in the later stages of her career, Sotherton believes she finally has what is rightfully hers, sitting alongside Commonwealth Games gold from Melbourne 2006.

She said: "It's come after nine years of wondering, being disappointed in my career, knowing that I had deserved more. I knew at the time, I think many people in the multi-event community knew that medals weren't rightfully given to the people.

"I could be really disappointed and angry, but I'm not. I'm finally happy.

"I feel my career now, I ended it with one Olympic medal and now today I have three.

"So regardless if I had received a medal or not, the history books say what I have so I'm really over the moon and I'm going to enjoy that experience going forward."

News of Sotherton's additional medal therefore gave her something of a 'lap of honour' this weekend, when appearing at the Great Birmingham Run.

And while she had been limited in celebrations nearly a decade ago, the World Championship bronze medallist insists she could still feel the appreciation of those who have supported her.

"It was fabulous being in Birmingham because it felt like I've done a lap of honour, and at the end it was really emotional," she added.

"It was a great crowd, there were more people out than I expected, especially coming home the last kilometre was brilliant, really supportive.

"Even people running, everyone was really supportive, lots of pats on the back, saying ‘Well done Kelly'. They knew who I was which was great."

Sportsbeat 2017