‘Heartbroken’ Sotherton accepts it’s time to retire

Kelly Sotherton has admitted to being “heartbroken” after retiring through injury two months before she hoped to compete at the London Olympics.

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.

The 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.”