Britain gain another 'overseas' athlete

As Kelly Sotherton prepares for her first test as a specialist 400m runner at this weekend's Aviva UK Championships in Sheffield, the former Commonwealth heptathlon champion faces the prospect of competition for a berth on the Olympic 4x400m relay team from the latest overseas athlete to change allegiances to Britain in the run-up to London 2012.

Shana Cox, a native of Long Island who once held the US high school indoor record and has a 400m personal best of 50.84sec, is already listed on her management website as representing GB, although the 26-year-old Penn State University student has yet to gain clearance to compete for the country where both of her parents were born.

Also, unlike the former US hurdler Tiffany Ofili and the Anguillan long jumper Shara Proctor, who made their British-qualified debuts at last month's Aviva Glasgow meeting, Cox does not yet have a British passport, so the eventual clearance to switch nationalities from the International Association of Athletics Federations may not come through in time for August's world championships in South Korea.