Kelly Sotherton of Great Britain in the Heptathlon's Long Jump (© Getty Images)
Madrid, SpainBritain’s Kelly Sotherton, the surprise Olympic Heptathlon bronze medallist at last summer’s Olympics, painted a picture of supreme professionalism and confidence as she prepared to embark tomorrow on only her first ever major international senior Pentathlon championship at the 28th European Indoor Championships in Madrid, Spain.
“I have just got to get on with it and concentrate on my own performance. That’s it. I have come here to score a PB (personal best) and it is all the more important now, as I do not want to disappoint any of my six coaches,” said a smiling Sotherton referring to her new coaching set-up since Athens.
The Birchfield Harrier whose PB came when winning the national indoor title in 2003 (4226pts) is now her own technical administrator, managing the input into her career of the advise garnered from six event specialists. Sotherton’s previous 'all-in-one' coach Charles van Commence left the UK last autumn to return to Holland where he has become National Technical Director.
“I hope I can give (Carolina Klüft) a good run for her money….You always want to compete against the best. There is always the chance that she might slip up. But anyway by competing against the best it will hopefully bring the best out of me.”
“I have more adrenalin for the Heptathlon than the Pentathlon and what happened before during this season does not matter when we hit the (start) line tomorrow.”
“Remember this is only my third ever (major senior) champs. I’m not experienced at all.” Though Sotherton competed at the 1997 European U23 championships (10th), her only major international fully senior Combined Event championships have been the 2002 Commonwealth Games (7th) and the 2004 Athens Olympics.
“But no, Athens (the bronze medal) has not put extra pressure on me to perform well here. The only pressure is what I put on myself. I can only do what I can do. I just intend to perform to the best of my ability on the day.”
“Thanks to Athens I know the procedures of how a major championship works and so I’m prepared to give 110%. I hope to improve in the Shot but more general my maturity of how to deal better with successes and failures.”
“There is an awful lot more about the Pentathlon than just dealing with the five individual events. It is the overall handling of the whole competition, keeping your concentration and composure.”
World, Olympic and European Champion Carolina Klüft for her part has a personal best (4933pts NR - 2003 World Indoor gold ) for the five events which is in a different league to the Briton but after Sotherton’s dramatic advance last summer she will be aware of her potential. Famously when they were competing in the Götzis Heptathlon last summer prior to the Olympics, the Swede even had to ask the name of the Briton. Those days of sporting anonymity are of course gone for Sotherton and it would be one of the greatest shocks of the entire championships should her lowly 4226 PB still remain in tact by the end of tomorrow’s five disciplines.
Chris Turner for the IAAF
MADRID on the IAAF WEBSITE
The IAAF website will be publishing end of session - AM & PM - reports during the three days of competition in Madrid (4 - 6 March), offering along with our usual mixture of feature stories and general news, comprehensive coverage of every significant event that occurs at the 28th European Indoor Championships.
