Sotherton surprises all

The perceived pathway in athletics is for future generations to be inspired by watching the Olympics. They envy the stars, and imagine themselves being there. The images ignite their dreams and fuel their hopes.

So Denise Lewis' Heptathlon title in Sydney motivated her British team mate, Kelly Sotherton, who last night took an unheralded bronze and nearly stole silver behind the runaway Swedish winner, Carolina Klüft?

Well, not exactly!

When Lewis won gold in 2000, Sotherton, was socialising. "I didn't watch it at all," she said. "I think I was in a nightclub," she admitted.

Now the party girl is the toast of British athletics, their first medallist of the Games, snatched from under the nose of Lewis, who abdicated when lying 18th, after the Long Jump.

The 27-year-old Sotherton stole up on everyone, including Lewis and her coach, Charles van Commenee. The man tipped as a potential future elite performance coach in Britain had discounted her totally, and very publicly.

Even Klüft was unaware of Sotherton's existence when she competed against her in Gotzis earlier this year. As Sotherton was racking up a lifetime best to rank third in the world, giving the first hint that last night's result was possible, Klüft asked reporters: "Who is she?" The media were happy to tell her, though nobody threatened the vibrant Viking over two days in the Olympic stadium.

Maybe the press should also have told Great Britain's national multi-events performance director, Van Commenee?

Speaking at the GB training camp in Cyprus just 12 days before Lewis and Sotherton went into action, he dismissed out of hand the suggestion that Sotherton could win a medal here in Athens, citing inexperience and questionable temperament. It was a damning asessment, delivered to Sotherton's face, in front of Lewis and a pack of media scribes.

"I don't see it that way," said van Commonee. "She hasn't shown anything that makes me think that she can medal - maybe top eight would be wonderful, especially when you think she was 27th in the world last year. Being in the Olympics is a different ball game, and so far she has been under-performing. If she gets it right, maybe better than top eight, but I have no reason to expect it."

Asked if this was reverse psychology, in an attempt to inspire her, he denied it outright. "She is 300 points behind in the javelin. Denise can make up all the leeway there. I'm being realistic . . . I expect Denise to medal."

Suspect temperament?

Sotherton came in with a High Jump best of 1.78 metres, then set one pb at 1.79m, another at 1.82m, and a third at 1.85m. She equalled her personal best in the 200m, and after two fouls in the Long Jump, reached 6.51m at the last attempt. In the 800m she was again a fraction inside her best, with 2:12.27. Just 0.89sec quicker, and she would have had silver.

"He was trying to take the pressure off me, but I proved him wrong, didn't I?" said Sotherton.

She did point to the absence of 2001 World champion Eunice Barber, and the withdrawal of Lewis and Natalia Sazanovitch, who has seven medals from every major she has contested since 2000: "I could easily have come sixth."

There was little to suggest Sotherton would reach such heights. She was 10th in the European under 23s in 1997, and seventh in the Commonwealth Games two years ago. She was 25 before she made her senior debut for Britain.

Last year the former debt-collector from the Isle of Wight was ranked 21st in the world, ineligible for the IAAF World Championships in Paris. Sotherton even considered a switch to 400m Hurdles. It was her mother, Yvonne, who persuaded her to give up her job, and train full time. That was only last November.

Mum was trackside last night, celebrating: "Well bawling her eyes out, actually," said Sotherton. Van Commenee will be grinning. Whatever his ploy was, it worked.

Doug Gillon for the IAAF