Sotherton Bags A Bronze For Britain

Kelly Sotherton claimed a bronze medal for Great Britain at the World Athletics Championships in Japan.

And there was more success for the Stagbearers as American Adam Nelson, affiliated to Birchfield, claimed silver in the men’s shot put with a 21.61m throw.

Sotherton overhauled Austra Skujyte after a battling 800m to finish third with 6,510 points. Fellow GB athlete Jessica Ennis placed fourth.

Sotherton said: “I wanted the medal so much, especially after such a poor start to the year, and put in a lot of hard graft.

“After six events I thought, here we go again, but fortunately I had one event left.

“The only person I was going to lose to in the 800m was Jessica Ennis. I was pushed all the way by her.

“She’s not far off taking Carolina Kluft’s mantle in the next few years. She’s the future, so everyone had better watch out.”

Sotherton lay in third place after the first day and cemented her position with a personal best leap of 6.68m in the long jump.

In the penultimate event, the javelin, Sotherton the a season’s best 31.90m but still dropped back to fourth before easily defeating Skujyte over two laps.

Tom Parsons placed an impressive tenth in the men’s high jump final.

Parsons lived dangerously, twice making third time clearances at 2.21m and then 2.26m but he was eventually undone at 2.30m.

Parsons said: “My aim was just to take another couple of scalps and I think I got the European champion out of the way, so that’s quite nice.

“I’m chuffed, it’s still a little bit frustrating not to get 2.30m, because I know it was in the body.

“But my legs are really sore after qualification. I still felt good warming up and thought I had 2.30m there.

“I had one close attempt at it, but on another day it could have been worse.

“The next step for me is to keep being consistent over 2.25m and above and make sure I stay at a world class level and try and qualify for the Beijing Olympics.”

Mark Lewis-Francis missed out on a place in the final of the World Championships 100m final by just one hundredth of a second, finishing fifth in his semi-final.

Dale Garland placed seventh in his heat of the 400m hurdles in a time of 49.98 secs.


Matt Panter
30 August 2007