It may be a decade late, but Kelly Sotherton has finally received her Olympic heptathlon bronze medal from the Beijing Games in 2008. And the 41-year-old admitted “the cloud has lifted” after finally getting her hands on the medal she was due having been upgraded from fifth place to third.
In the aftermath of the 2008 Games, Ukraine’s Lyudmila Blonska was stripped of her silver medal for doping before Russia’s Tatyana Chernova, who had been upgraded from fourth to third, failed in her appeal against a retrospective doping ban, assuring Sotherton of bronze.
The Englishwoman, who also won heptathlon bronze at Athens 2004, said she felt “happy, sad, angry and bitter” at receiving her medal before adding “I always knew in my heart this medal was mine”.
Meanwhile, UK Athletics chief executive Neils de Vos has announced he will step down from his post at the end of September.
De Vos has been in position for almost 12 years and under his leadership, GB athletes won a total of 13 Olympic medals, six of them gold, at London 2012 and Rio 2016.
UK Athletics’ strategy and partnerships director Nigel Holl, who was previously chief executive of Scottish Athletics, will take charge of the national governing body on an interim basis while De Vos’ successor is found.
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