OLYMPIC hopeful Kelly Sotherton has soared to a personal best in the heptathlon - with a little help from Olympic champion Denise Lewis.

According to Sotherton's coach, Charles Van Commenee, Lewis's golden touch has been rubbing off on the 27-year-old Isle of Wight all-rounder, who finished second to Swedish world champion Carolina Kluft in Gotzis, Austria, last weekend with a new heptathlon high of 6,406 points.

Van Commenee, the UK Athletics technical director for combined events and jumps, marvelled: "Amazing! This is the result of really hard work throughout the winter. Kelly has been working with Denise Lewis, getting inspiration from the Olympic champion, and I think this result shows she is going in the right direction."

Sotherton, who lives in the Midlands and competes for Birchfield Harriers, produced her second best-ever performances in the 100m hurdles (13.49 seconds) and high jump (1.77 metres) and then broke her personal best in her weakest event, the shot, for the second time in the space of a month, improving to 13.32 metres.

She ended the first day with another personal best in the 200m, clocking 23.73 seconds with the help of a wind measured spot on the legal limit of two metres per second.

Lying third overnight, Sotherton, pictured, then reeled off lifetime best performances in all three events on the second day - long jump (6.61), javelin (40.81) and 800m (2.12.29).

The javelin was a staggering improvement on two years ago when Sotherton threw just 27 metres at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester.

Van Commenee said: "She has been working particularly hard at that event all winter and is clearly beginning to reap the rewards."