Sotherton hoping 2008 bronze can be celebrated at London Stadium
BySportsbeat
Updated 06/12/2017 at 20:54 GMT
Kelly Sotherton feels the Beijing 2008 Olympic bronze medal she has waited nearly ten years for deserves to be celebrated at the London Stadium.
Kelly Sotherton of Britain competes in the javelin throw event of the women's heptathlon in the athletics competition in the National Stadium at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games August 16, 2008.
Image credit: Reuters
The 41-year-old had finished fifth nine years ago but disqualifications for Lyudmila Blonska from Ukraine and Russia's Tatyana Chernova ensured her third Olympic medal was to be finally secured.
Chernova's appeal was this week turned down, a decision Sotherton only found about via social media, adding to her Athens 2004 heptathlon and Beijing 4x400m relay bronze medals.
The latter also came about after doping disqualifications, with the British athlete now hoping she gets the recognition she deserves in front of the home fans.
That would see her following the likes of fellow heptathlete Jessica Ennis-Hill, who received reallocated World Championship gold medal from 2011 during the World Athletics Championships.
"I want to hear the roar of the crowd and have the feeling of what it would have felt like in Beijing, being celebrated by all those people,” she told BBC Sport.
"To do it at the Olympic stadium in your home country, with my family there, would be pretty special.
"I have had the anger and now I am looking forward to receiving the medals and focusing on the future and all that the medal can bring.
"I can now move forward and not think what could have been. I can't complain about three Olympic bronze medals, it is more than anyone can ask for.
"I feel my career has been worth something now. It shows success, and maybe I was better than I appeared to people."
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