Sotherton plans Boston tribute

Former Olympic heptathlon medallist Kelly Sotherton will compete in her first marathon in London on Sunday and believes the race will be a fitting tribute to those killed and injured in Boston.

The 36-year-old, a bronze medallist in Athens in 2004, insists that she never even considered withdrawing from the race. Sotherton added that to have done so would have handed a victory to the perpetrators of the Boston atrocity where three people died and 150 were injured when two bombs exploded close to the finishing line on Monday.

"It never crossed my mind to pull out. Obviously we will not forget what happened in Boston but it will be business as usual and I am sure that is what the people of Boston would want," she said.

"If London had been cancelled then the people responsible for this atrocity would have won. It was a soft target - targeting people trying to raise money for charity.

"I will be wearing a black ribbon on Sunday which the organisers are giving out at registration and I am sure everyone else will be.

"I have every confidence in the security and if you let yourself worry about these kind of things then you would never do anything at all - you would probably never even go to London or get on a Tube."

Sotherton is raising money for the Run For It charity, which aims to tackle isolation and loneliness for those in later life. She is targeting a time of around four hours, and has been given tips by former 400m runner Iwan Thomas who has now run in four London marathons.

She added: "Iwan has warned me about some of the pitfalls and the things to look out for - to take it sensibly at the start and the fact that you are going to hit the wall at some point.

"It means nothing to have been an Olympic athlete - this is totally, totally different. The longest race I used to compete in was 800 metres."