‘Heartbroken’ Sotherton accepts it’s time to retire
The 35-year-old former Commonwealth Games champion and Olympic bronze medal-winning heptathlete called time on her career yesterday, a little over a week after surgery to remove part of a disc from her back.
It ends an ambitious attempt to return to top-level competition in the heptathlon, which she abandoned in 2010 in favour of the 400 metres due to a previous back injury.
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Hide AdThe British athlete said: “After losing my funding at the end of the 2011 season, I decided if I was going to do this myself I would have a final shot at my first love – the heptathlon – and really go for the chance to compete at a home Olympics. Sadly it wasn’t meant to be and the body didn’t quite hold out long enough. I’m heartbroken but I’m looking forward to new challenges.”