Kelly Sotherton to receive 2008 Olympic bronze medal after discovering news on Twitter following Tatyana Chernova ban

British former heptathlete is now a three-times Olympic medallist after being promoted to third in the 2008 Beijing Games

Kelly Sotherton has been awarded a bronze medal for the 2008 Bejing Olympic heptathlon (Getty)

Kelly Sotherton is set to receive a retrospective bronze medal from the 2008 Beijing Olympics after Russia’s Tatyana Chernova failed to have a doping ban overturned – and the British former heptathlete only discovered the news on Twitter.

The 41-year-old already has two Olympic bronze medals to her name through the 2004 Athens heptathlon and the 2008 Beijing 4x400m relay. However, Sotherton agonisingly missed out on a medal in the heptathlon nine years ago, finishing fifth at the time despite being tipped before the Games as a medal favourite.

Ukrainian Lyudmyla Blonska was quickly disqualified from second place though after failing a doping test, promoting Sotherton to fourth, before Chernova was stripped of her bronze medal earlier this year as the Russian doping scandal was uncovered.

Sotherton has had to wait since that revelation to discover if she would be promoted to third, and on Monday the Court of Arbitration for Sport [Cas] announced that it has upheld the decision to ban Chernova and strip her of the bronze medal.

Yet despite the ruling being made on Monday evening, Sotherton had no idea that the ruling had been upheld until she spotted it on Twitter.

“Literally just seen this,” Sotherton wrote on Twitter in response to a tweet about her success. “So @iocmedia when will I get my medal? [Because] I’ve been waiting for 9 years and 3 months!

Thanks for all the messages of support and congratulations. It’s always better late than never #BetterLateThanNever.”

The Great Britain 4x400m team inherited bronze when both Belarus and Russia were disqualified for doping offences.

Sotherton was part of the British 4x400m relay team that was promoted to third (Getty)

Chernove meanwhile was also stripped of her 2011 World Championships heptathlon title last year, which saw Jessiva Ennis-Hill retrospectively promoted to gold as a result.