Sotherton fury at 'cheat' Blonska

Briton Kelly Sotherton has hit out at heptathlon silver medallist Lyudmila Blonska, calling her a "cheat" after taking World Championships bronze.

Ukrainian Blonska served a two-year ban after testing positive for steroids in 2003 and Sotherton is not happy she is winning medals ahead of clean athletes.

"She has cheated once, who says she is not cheating again?" said Sotherton.

"We're not interested when she's there, we don't support cheats. It tarnishes our event and we don't support it."

Blonska was in the silver medal position behind Carolina Kluft from day one while Sotherton, who slid to fourth after a poor javelin, hauled herself into third with a gutsy 800m.

Team-mate Jessica Ennis finished outside the medals in fourth, meaning if Blonska had not returned to the sport two Britons would have been on the rostrum.

But Sotherton, 30, said: "I don't know if I feel cheated, we will find out in a few months.

"Hopefully she is clean, but you want to beat people who are dirty to prove that it is not worth cheating anyway.

"I shook her hand, everybody shakes each other's hand, but it's just a sportsmanly thing that you do.

"It's tough, she (Blonska) blatantly did it and she knew she did it.

"We would rather see Kluft win because we support her, we know that she is clean and we want her to win as we will always support the clean athletes."

On the eve of the championships, governing body the International Association of Athletics Federations called for stronger penalties for doping, including a doubling of the ban for first-time violations to four years.

Source: BBC Sport