Lyudmila Blonska was recently accused as a cheating cow by Britain’s Kelly Sotherton.

Kelly Sotherton was able to get her official certificate from the Beijing Olympic Games just several weeks ago wherein the certificate revealed the hard truth that she finished fourth during the heptathlon. But behind the hard yet true confirmation of how close the 32-year-old came to the inspiring medal haul in China, is a story of dishonesty and disappointment, which after 5 months, Sotherton has been able to tell just now.

During the time when the two-day competition in the heptathlon finished, Sotherton was able to see herself in a very disappointing scenario because she was able to only land on the fifth position in the final standings. Ater the event however, people eventually found that silver medallist Lyudmila Blonska had in fact failed a drug test for testosterone. Because of this, Blonska was banned from the game and was consequently banned for her entire life, along with her Sergii Blonskyi, who is both her husband and coach.

Sotherton had witnessed this kind of cheating before, in fact it is a familiar story for people in the Heptathlon. In 2003, the Ukrainian failed a drugs test for steroids which resulted to her being banned for two years. And despite her wish of returning to the sport, the accusation for drug cheat has been a constant hindrance.

Sotherton had earlier said in an interview with The Uk Daily Mail how blatant and suspicious Blonska’s behaviour had been especially in Beijing. Sotherton further said that her suspicions started the moment she saw her rival being given something by her husband during the time when the competitors were going into the stadium in order to take part in the heptathlon’s long jump.

She added that during the long jump event in Beijing, she saw Blonska take something since she was just sitting next to her. She intentionally sat beside her rival because she had the strong feeling that a cheating will take place. Sotherton even said that perhaps because of the incident, she messed on her own long jump.

But that’s not all, Sotherton said that the same thing happened during the World Indoor Championships in Valencia. Back then, the Ukranian was thrown something suspicious by her husband (from the crowd). Although this was not allowed in the games and all the coaches saw the incident, the British athlete claimed that no one reported it. So when the Blonska couple tried to pull the same stunt in Beijing, Sotherton said she was left with no choice but to report it to the British team, which in turn, notified the IAAF, the athletics authorities. Upon investigation, they did recover something within the warm-up area…and finally, the truth about Blonska’s doping was revealed.

It was a long and painful battle, but at last Sotherton’s cry was finally given its due. Her honesty efforts to compete and excel at the heptathlon was finally recognized and vindicated with the certificate declaring her officially in the fourth position in the recently concluded Beijing Olympics. She said that she fought for it because she wished to reveal the truth - that she never came fifth, she rightfully deserved fourth place.

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