Kelly Sotherton

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Medal record
Kelly Sotherton
Olympic Games
Bronze	2004 Athens	Heptathlon
Commonwealth Games
Gold	2006 Melbourne	Heptathlon

Kelly Jade Sotherton (born 13 November 1976) is an English heptathlete.

Sotherton was born in Newport on the Isle of Wight. As a teenager, she played netball for Hampshire, but also won two English Schools’ championships in the heptathlon.

She moved to the Midlands in order to train with 2000 Olympic heptathlon champion Denise Lewis. She made her senior British team debut in 2002.

For a period in 2006, Sotherton is ranked 3rd in the world in Heptathlon behind Carolina Klüft of Sweden and Lyudmila Blonska of Ukraine. She was also ranked 13th in the World for Long Jump.

Contents 1 Personal Life 2 2004 3 2005 4 2006 5 Achievements 6 External links

[edit] Personal Life

She trains at the grounds of the world famous athletics club Birchfield Harriers which is based in Birmingham, England. Whilst Competing Sotherton has seen to be friendly with fellow Heptathletes Carolina Klüft and Karin Ruckstuhl.

[edit] 2004

She gained international recognition in 2004 when she surprisingly won a bronze medal at the Summer Olympics in Athens behind Carolina Klüft (gold) and Austra Skujyte (silver), scoring 6424 points and finishing ahead of defending Olympic champion Lewis who dropped out due to injury.

[edit] 2005

In March 2005 she competed in the European Indoor Championships where she took silver once again behind Klüft.
Götzis, Austria in May saw Kelly once again beaten into second, behind the Swede, but she did record a personal best of 6547 points.
At the AAA's National Championship in July, Kelly competed in four individual events and took her first senior national title in winning the long jump with a jump of 6.48 metres.
At the 2005 World Championships Kelly had held a medal position going into the sixth event, despite some below average performances, but a disastrous javelin saw her drop out of contention. Sotherton did fight back knocking nearly 2.5 seconds off her personal best to win the final 800 m but despite this closing the overall gap on those ahead she only finished fifth.

[edit] 2006

In March 2006 she competed for England in the hepathlon at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. She took gold with a score of 6396, ahead of Kylie Wheeler of Australia (silver) and her team mate Jessica Ennis (bronze).

In August 2006 she competed for Great Britain and Northern Ireland in the hepathlon at the 2006 European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg. She came seventh ahead of her team mate Jessica Ennis after a disappointing javelin event allowed her to drop from second.

[edit] Achievements

• 1997
  • Island Games - Jersey, Channel Islands[1]
    • record holder for 100 m (12.02 seconds)
    • record holder for 100m hurdles (14.39 seconds)
    • record holder for long jump (5.84 metres)

• 2004
  • Summer Olympics - Athens, Greece.
    • heptathlon bronze medal
  • European Cup - Bydgoszcz, Poland
    • long jump silver medal

• 2005
  • European Indoor Championships - Madrid, Spain
    • pentathlon silver medal
  • WAAA Championships - Manchester, England
    • long jump gold medal

• 2006
  • 2006 Commonwealth Games
    • heptathlon gold medal

• 2007
  • European Indoor Championships - Birmingham, United Kingdom
    • Pentathlon Silver medal

[edit] External links

• IAAF profile for Kelly Sotherton