KELLY SOTHERTON may quit heptathlon after next year's Olympic Games as she considers a fresh challenge to extend her sporting career.

The 30-year-old, from the Isle of Wight, finally added a World Championship medal to the Olympic bronze she won in 2004 after finishing third in Osaka last week.

But following her season's best display over two days at the Nagai Stadium, Sotherton revealed it could be her final multi-event outing at the World Championships as she looks to stay injury-free heading into the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

"I want to go to 2012 and I don't want to be injured," she said.

"I think heptathlon is an event where there is a high chance of injury and I have already got so many things going on that I struggle even now.

"I don't want to finish my career full of injuries, I still want to have a life after athletics.

"I have never said 2012 is out of the question for heptathlon but I don't want to go there if I am full of injuries and after Beijing I might try other sports.

"I have said I would like to have a go at kayaking or track cycling. I'll probably be no good at them but I am keeping my options open and I don't see why I can't try other sports."

Olympic heptathlon champion Carolina Kluft, who set a new European record to land a third consecutive world crown last week, is also considering a change post-Beijing after dominating the sport for six years.

The 24-year-old looks set to concentrate on the long jump and, despite the prospect of having to compete with the Swede again, it is also the route Sotherton is likely to choose.

Sotherton's lifetime best 6.68 metres leap in the heptathlon would have secured an eighth-place finish in the long jump final at the World Championships, leaving the Commonwealth champion confident she can challenge for medals should she devote all her energy to the one discipline.

"The training cant be any harder than the heptathlon over one event. I don't want to be injury-prone and I want to finish my career in one piece," she added.

"There are always options and a fresh challenge will have added motivation. I have kayaked before and enjoyed it and I have always said I would try other sports; if I can, I would always do athletics.

"Next year could possibly be the last heptathlon because I will be 31 going into Beijing. I'm hoping that will be a good one and then follow Carolina and bug her in the long jump maybe for another four years.

"My performance at the worlds confirmed that, if I just jumped, I could be a world-class long jumper.

"I want to just continue at one event and maybe jump and maybe keep my hand in the heptathlon, maybe go to London and do a heptathlon.

"I just want to keep my options open, but I would like to finish next year and do singles events because it is so much easier.

"I would still bring some of the elements from the other events because multi-events work is the best form of training, so I would still keep some of the elements to break it up, but I would concentrate on sprinting and jumping because I enjoy doing all that work."

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