Olympic star angered by West Ham's plans
By jay legate
February 24th 2010, 2:32pm
The power that football exudes over other sports in the UK is evident though Premier League teams taking over the nation's athletics venues. Thats the view of Olympic and world heptathlon bronze medallist Kelly Sotherton.
New West Ham owners David Gold and David Sullivan have plans to alleviate the club's financial struggles by moving from their Upton Park to the 2012 Olympic stadium. Kelly Sotherton insists the stadium should stay an athletics venue.
"To have an Olympic stadium turned into a football stadium by a club struggling near the foot of the Premier League, it's out of order." The Hammers plans to move has already met with opposition from Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell, ex-London mayor Ken Livingstone and UK Athletics chairman Ed Warner are among those speaking out against the move.
Sullivan and Gold remain unperturbed, though, and are confident a deal can be struck. Gold believes the deterioration of the specialist athletics track at Crystal Palace provides an example that an athletics stadium, in itself, is unsustainable.
But Sotherton remains adamant that ""We just don't have a stadium that replicates the size and grandeur of an Olympic stadium. It's something the sport desperately needs."
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