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Kelly Sotherton set to get third Olympic bronze medal

Tuesday 25 April 2017 17:04, UK

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Hear from Britain's Kelly Sotherton after she was told she'll be upgraded to the bronze medal position in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Britain's Kelly Sotherton is set to be upgraded to her third Olympic bronze medal.

The development comes as a result of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) disqualifying Russian heptathlete Tatyana Chernova for testing positive for a steroid at the 2008 Games in Beijing.

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Chernova's positive is only the latest in a long line from the IOC's re-analysis of stored anti-doping samples from the 2008 and 2012 Games.

Sotherton, who won a surprise bronze medal in the heptathlon at the 2004 Games, has already been upgraded to a bronze in the 4x400 metres relay in Beijing thanks to the belated disqualification of the teams from Belarus and Russia.

She also finished fifth in the heptathlon in 2008 but has now climbed to third after the previously announced doping ban of Ukraine's Lyudmila Blonska and now Chernova.

"I always had my suspicions about Chernova," Sotherton told Sky Sports News HQ.

Russia's Tatyana Chernova (L) celebrates behind Britain's Jessica Ennis at the end of the 800 metres of the women's heptathlon event at the International A
Image: Russia's Tatyana Chernova was stripped of the medal she won in Beijing

"I'm trying to look at it from a different angle where I don't get too angry about it. It's still horrible, I still don't like it, but I'm trying to think of it from the position that she was in.

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"I was a Nike athlete [and] I lost my contract two years after that Games," Sotherton added.

"I didn't win a medal and I should have come back with two - my contract would have probably doubled. I would have been a lot better off I assure you, but that's done now. Whether I get recompensed for that I don't know."

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