It was some choice. Once a debt collector with the HSBC, last night she became a bronze medallist for Team GB as the baton of British multi-eventing was passed between two women based in Birmingham and at either ends of their careers. They are training partners, and both have prospered under the guidance of the same man, who has directed them each towards the Olympic podium four years apart.
Lewis was the Olympic champion, a fighter of fierce qualities who had hobbled around Stadium Australia in pain to win gold. Yesterday there was no more fight left. The end, perhaps, of her heptathlon career came in a short statement before the final two events of a gripping competition.
Lewis announced that she was pulling out of the competition because she was “empty” and “emotionally and physically devastated” to have to lose the defence of her title in this way. She was 18th in the event at the time, 199 points away from bronze, but her body had nothing left.
When she had won silver here in the world championships in 1997, it was 12 months after she had finished third at the Olympic Games in Atlanta. Her hunger was then at its greatest and at the next Olympics she was a champion.
Too much has happened since Sydney to have expected her to repeat her success, most notably the emergence of Carolina Kluft, the Swedish star who succeeded Lewis as Olympic champion like everybody knew she would. Yesterday, she was phenomenal as always.
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But as Lewis chose to retire from this competition, with it, most probably, came the realisation that she is no longer the leading heptathlete in Birmingham, let alone the world.
Sotherton is a rare breed. She is 27, an age when most athletes are in their prime rather than embarking on their first full-time season and at their first major championship. But she is dedicated, and has sacrificed many of the niceties of life in spending the past 12 months working towards a moment that saw her finish only 11 points away from silver.
“I went out to get the silver medal so I’m actually disappointed,” said Sotherton afterwards. “I only did one personal best over the two days and my javelin was poor.
“But I got a bronze medal and I don’t believe it. I can’t believe the enormity of Olympic bronze. It’s been a tough two days and I’m knackered.
“I had a dream of a medal, but this is a surprise. All it feels like at the moment is as if I won bronze in a national championships — but I’m sure it will sink in soon. It does not seem like the Olympics” Sotherton lives a few minutes walk from the Alexander stadium in Birmingham where she trains with Lewis and Charles van Commenee, the British Athletics performance director for combined events. She lives off about £20,000 a year she receives in funding from the national lottery. She does not buy glamorous clothes, she does not go out much and her diet — and here’s one of the big sacrifices — no longer includes her favourite fish and chips. Professionalism has become her byword.
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After finishing second behind Kluft in Austria in May, she looked an outstanding medal contender. But Van Commenee had played down her chances, insisting she would finish in the top eight. “Charles was right,” said Sotherton. “I did finish in the top eight — I was third.”
She had ended the opening day in second place, 240 points behind Kluft and if Sotherton wondered about her nerve holding, she did not have to wait long. The first event was the long jump, her specialist discipline.
With a personal best of 6.68m from earlier in the season, she surprsingly had fouls on her first two efforts and waited long on the runway as she composed herself for her last attempt. She was close to the red line again, but just enough the right side of it and she reached 6.51m, to stay in the silver medal position. She was 176 points ahead of Austra Skujyte, of Lithuania, as Kluft stretched her lead to 329 points, having jumped 6.78m.
But the biggest test lay ahead. Sotherton has broken the 40m barrier for the javelin this year, but it remains one of her weakest events. So it proved. After reaching only 35.42m and 37.14m, she ended with 37.19m. Significantly Skujyte threw 49.58m, earning 239 more points than Sotherton to replace her in second. And so it went down to the 800m.
Sotherton has a best of a second quicker than Skujyte and from the gun she dominated the race. She led at 250m, stretching ahead as the Lithuanian slipped away. But it was not to be enough for Sotherton to take silver. The Briton won the final heat featuring the leaders in 2:12.27. Skujyte was 3.65sec slower, but gained enough points to finish second overall.
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When asked about Lewis, Sotherton said: “After watching her come back from abroad and spend the last 12 months trying to re-live her Olympic dream, it was sad for her because she should have been defending her title to the end. But she has been amazing. She was on crutches a month ago with injury, my heart goes out to her.”
But this moment was Sotherton’s to celebrate, and off she went to search the crowd for her mother Yvonne, who has been her inspiration and advised her to go full time.
Lewis, 31, had finished fifth in Paris last summer and had not competed in a heptathlon since. She might now concentrate on a single event, the long jump perhaps, but it would be a surprise if we saw her in this type of competition again. “I have put my heart and soul into this year with only one goal and one mission in mind and that was to come away with a medal from the Olympics,” said Lewis.
“I am empty and unable to continue. I would do myself even less justice going through the motions when all my hopes have gone.”
Kluft spent most of the two days with a smile on her face. She is such a character, and what a performer. She won with 6,952 points from Skujyte, who was second with 6,435, ahead of Sotherton on 6,424, a personal best by 18 points.
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As she finished third, teammate Kelly Holmes, a bronze medallist from Sydney, reached the final of the 800m with a stylish performance. She was never in the lead until the final 20m, staying out of trouble and winning her heat in 1:57.98, a season’s best.
“I have had a lot of soul-searching but at least I have made the decision about doubling up with this and the 1500m,” said Holmes. “I won’t know if it is the right decision until it is over.”
Maria Mutola, of Mozambique, the defending champion, won her semi-final in 1:59.30, and that pace proved too much for Britain’s Jo Fenn, who was fifth in 2:00.60.
A few weeks ago Christine Ohuruogu was an unknown in world athletics circles, never mind the British scene. But how times change. Yesterday morning, the east Londoner became the fifth fastest British 400m runner of all time when she finished third in her heat, the fastest race of the day, in 50.50sec, taking 0.39sec off her personal best as American Sanya Richards, one of the medal contenders, won in 50.11sec. Donna Fraser and Lee McConnell also both progressed but in the men’s 400m semi-final, Tim Benjamin finished last.