ISLE of Wight-born Olympic bronze medal winning heptathlete Kelly Sotherton is now back from Athens and, after time to take stock, she speaks to the Southern Daily Echo about her experience...

KELLY SOTHERTON is finding it hard to come back down after the emotional high of winning an Olympic medal.

The Isle of Wight-born athlete, 27, claimed bronze in the women's heptathlon in Greece last month.

Had she gone two seconds faster in the final event, the 800m, she would have won silver.

Sotherton, who lives in Birmingham, has confessed she now has to handle greater pressure and public expectation - starting with next year's World Championships in Helsinki.

"I've been completely overwhelmed by the response I have got since I got back to Britain," she said.

"I went down to the doctors the other morning and even she knew who I was and took time to congratulate me.

"In myself, I must admit to feeling emotionally drained, but I think a lot of athletes feel like that after coming back from an Olympics.

"Apart from that life seems to be going on as normal. I don't think the realisation of what I have achieved has really hit me yet, and it might not do so for quite a long time to be honest.

"I now know as well that there will be a whole load of different pressures on me come next year's World Championships.

"In my own head, I knew I could win a medal this time round, but nobody in the media was saying that.

"I didn't make my thoughts public though, because I didn't want to put any added pressure on myself.

"Next year a lot more will be expected of me from others and that is something I need to learn to deal with.

"I can handle that and hopefully I can deliver on it."

Sotherton was just one British athlete in Athens to benefit from Lottery funding.

The extra financial help she received helped her to give up her day job in a Birmingham bank and concentrate full-time on her Olympic preparations.

"I know I am at a new level now, and I want to take time to thank the British public for the support they have given me through buying their Lottery tickets every week," she admitted.

"The funding I have received from the National Lottery through UK Sport has been invaluable, allowing me to give up my part-time job and focus fully on my athletics.

"I have my own idea in my head of what I want to achieve every time I compete.

"In Athens there was a slight sense of disappointment that I only got the bronze in the end, as it could have been silver.

"It has been well reported that my coach Charles van Commenee was quite hard on me after the last event in my heptathlon, the 800m, where he felt that I could have gone harder for silver.

"But that moment is gone now. At the end of the day I have to get on with my life.

"I felt that I approached Athens in the right way and I will be replicating my approach at the Worlds next year."

Sotherton expects training partner Denise Lewis to bounce back from her Olympic misery - the Sydney gold medallist pulled out of the heptathlon midway through the event through injury.

"I would like to have seen her finish.

"She may regret not doing that - possibly for the rest of her life," said Sotherton.

"But she has a bronze and a gold medal from previous Olympics, so she has already achieved all there is to achieve.

"I fancy her to come back stronger from this and I fully expect her to be there in Helsinki."