Isle of Wight star restarts Beijing countdown

1:18pm Wednesday 28th May 2008

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Olympic heptathlon gold medal contender Kelly Sotherton is back in full training after recovering from a kidney problem.

The Isle of Wight star missed two and a half weeks of training after first suffering the illness just over a month ago, but has now recommenced her build-up for the Beijing Olympics and is very confident she can make up for lost time.

With Sweden's Carolina Kluft not defending her title, 2004 Olympic bronze medallist Sotherton knows she has an excellent chance of following in the footsteps of Denise Lewis, who won the 2000 Olympic crown in Sydney.

Sotherton has always been a quick healer, recovering from a big toe joint injury that prevented her from running for six weeks to finish runner-up in the pentathlon at the World Indoor Championships earlier this year.

But the 31-year-old multi-eventer has withdrawn from this weekend's Hypo Combined Events meeting in Gotzis, Austria, where all the major candidates for honours in China, including fellow Briton Jessica Ennis, will be competing.

Sotherton, it is understood, feels after her illness she needs to get more training under her belt before contesting the demanding seven-event discipline.

Sotherton has yet to confirm whether she will compete for the Norwich Union GB team in the European Combined Events Cup in Istanbul on June 28-29.