Commonwealth Games: 'rubbish' Sotherton Strikes Gold

Kelly Sotherton celebrated the first major title of her career when she won the Commonwealth Games heptathlon last night but admitted she was unlikely to claim any more major medals unless she could correct the glaring weakness in her armoury.

Just as the javelin cost the Birchfield athlete a medal at the world championships in Helsinki last August, the discipline - the sixth of the seven events that make up the heptathlon - nearly proved expensive again at the MCG. She threw only 32.04 metres to turn what should have been a comfortable victory into a nailbiting affair.

Sotherton still ended up triumphing by 98 points over Australia's Kylie Wheeler with a score of 6,396 but she made little effort to hide her disappointment. "I was rubbish today," said the Olympic bronze medallist. "I've let myself down and everyone else down. It's taken the shine off the victory."

The 29-year-old has failed to master the intricacies of the javelin despite having worked closely for more than a year with John Trower, the former coach of Steve Backley. "I can't understand it because I threw 38 metres in the snow before I left for Australia," said Sotherton. "The problem is probably psychological."

In contrast to Sotherton's downbeat mood, the bronze medallist Jessica Ennis was ecstatic. The 20-year-old from Sheffield announced her arrival as a potentially serious threat to Sotherton with a series of eye-catching performances, particularly in the high jump where she cleared 1.91m and defied her lack of inches, which has led Sotherton to nickname her "tadpole".

Sotherton is following in the footsteps of Denise Lewis, a former Birchfield training partner and the winner of this competition in 1994 and 1998, which she used as the springboard to her Olympic success in 2000. But Sotherton admitted she is unlikely to emulate Lewis's achievement if the problem with the javelin persists.

"I can't expect to win medals in major championships if I carry on like this," said Sotherton. "I may as well give all my rivals 200 points at the start of the day."

As Sotherton was coming off the track, a major incident was brewing in the high jump where Wakefield's Martyn Bernard was involved in a rumpus with the judges that cost him two of three attempts at 2.29 metres when he was involved in a battle with Canada's Mark Boswell for the gold medal.

The 21-year-old Bernard was left with silver after he predictably failed his one attempt at 2.29m following an argument that lasted 15 minutes. "I feel a bit cheated," he said. "I feel that the judges were out of line. Mark ran through in his first attempt at 2.29m and tripped my marker up. When I went on my attempt, the marker was in a different position, so I didn't get to the bar and I stopped.

"At the second attempt I asked for the bar to be raised to 2.31m while Mark was taking his second attempt at 2.29m. However, they pretended they didn't hear me. My name came up at 2.29 on the scoreboard, I didn't want to jump that height, so I went to the judge and said, 'I asked for 2.31.' She didn't say anything to me.

"I went back assuming that my attempt was for 2.31. However, my name stayed on the screen for 2.29. I went back again and she said 'No, I'm not going to move it.' Then there wasn't enough time. For my third attempt I wasn't in the right shape to jump. I don't feel I had a fair crack at it. Everyone is telling me I should be happy with silver but I feel I've been cheated." The chief judge denied Bernard's version of events. "It just never happened," said the Australian official.

Elsewhere it was another good day in the shooting for Britain with Wales' David Phelps and Scotland's Sheena Sharp both taking gold and Northern Ireland's David Beattie silver. Phelps won Wales's third gold of the games in the men's 50m rifle prone, with England's Mike Babb taking silver. Sharp captured her second gold in the women's 50m rifle prone ahead of Wales's Johanne Brekke, who took bronze. Beattie clinched Northern Ireland's second medal in Melbourne after a shoot-off in the men's trap.

Bill Sweetenham, British Swimming's performance director, has meanwhile denied he is set to move back to Australia after the performances of England's and Scotland's competitors caught the eye of his former employers.

"Bill would be invaluable as a member of our coaching staff," said Swimming Australia's chief executive Glenn Tasker. "Any country would benefit from his expertise."