posted Feb 24, 2008

You have a point there Rocco. 52.47 indoors is equivalent to a time well inside 52 secs outdoors and Sotherton has hardly worked on the event as it isn't part of the heptathlon! She 's also familiar with hurdles so could settle easier in the event.
Nevertheless, how about the 400m itself? If she can run mid 52s amid training mainly for seven other disciplines then one can only speculate...

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posted Feb 24, 2008

Yeah she should definitely be an option for the 4x400m relay in Beijing. Sanders,Ohuruogu, McConnell and Sotherton; colud be some team. Might be a tough choice between her and Tasha Danvers though.

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posted Feb 25, 2008

Every athlete who can run pretty well at 400m and has half decent hurdle ability believes they can achieve more at 400mHurdles. This is not the case (look at Lee McConnel) - they are completely different events, the stride pattern and stride length become so much more important than in the flat race.

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posted Feb 25, 2008

the problem with mcConnel was that she didn't have the background in hurdling, which sotherton has. another more successful example is gunnell, who had both the technique from sprint hurdles and the stamina. maybe sotherton wouldn't take to it as well, but then few would have predicted that gunnell would have had so much success either.

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posted Feb 25, 2008

she should defiently do it

just so we can see more of her on the telly

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posted Feb 25, 2008

Another very sound point from THFC, even from a different aspect!

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posted Feb 26, 2008

I believe that kelly should stick with a very tough event in the heptathlon and try to win as much as she can in the next few years. Then maybe to prevent injuries she could switch to focus on a single event - which will probably be the long jump rather than the 400mH,

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posted Feb 26, 2008

THFC you rock
Gunnel took about a year to perfect her transition from the sprint hurdles to the longer event. Isn't this really trying the 3000m s/c when your a 400m hurdler or something. Saying that there are good 1500m and 3000m runners that have switched to steeplechase and so it goes around and around. I cant see Kelly doing anything more in the 400m except maybe a relay or 2 this year, the olympic heptathlon is far to important to her.
On a personal point, i'd love to see her in the 100m,200m,400m,800,1500m,5000,10000,3000s/c hurdles and all the field events too, she should actually commentate as well as give reports and even report on all the other olympic events to, well with the exception of the swimming that is

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posted Feb 27, 2008

400H means you have to be able to hurde off both legs. Am unsure of the back injuries that Southerton has had but this could actually preclude the work needed to become proficient.
Stick with what you know.

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posted Feb 28, 2008

Kelly Sotherton has said she is going to call time on heptathlon after Beijing and take up a single event from there on. So, something between the long jump, the 800m, the 400 flat and hurdles are solid options.

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