Kelly Sotherton missed out on a heptathlon medal at the Olympic Games here today as her valiant effort in the worst season of her career was never enough.

The British multi-eventer, who won bronze in Athens four years ago, finished fifth with 6517 points as Nataliia Dobrynska, of the Ukraine, took gold with 6733 ahead of teammate Lyudmila Blonska with 6700 with American Hyleas Fountain, third wit 6619.

While it boiled down to Sotherton beating Blonska by 15 seconds in the last event, the 800m, it was never going to happen.

Sotherton finished second in the race 2.07.34, a personal best by 0.60, but Blonska, who had been in third place before the race, was fourth in 2:09.44.

Sotherton had been in third position overnight with three events left but the day did not start well for the Isle of Wight athlete, even though it was her best discipline, the long jump.

The Birchfield Harrier, who has been battling illness and injury all year, has a personal best of 6.68m for this event. Yet she managed a best of only 6.33m after an even more disappointing 6.21m in the first round.

The performance saw her slip back into fifth position, 154 points adrift of leader Dobrynska.

For once, though, her javelin was not a disaster. Sotherton showed a great deal of improvement to land 37.66m, one of her best efforts for years.

By now though gold was out of the question and while she was 214 points adrift of Blonska - 5727 points to 5513 - the 200m offered her great hope, yet from the start the Ukrainian stuck close to her.

Sotherton will now decide what to do next. She has talked about taking a break from the heptathlon after next summer’s World Championships in Berlin and then returning for the Olympics in London 2012. Yet, equally she may decide to bow out of the heptathlon now - and concentrate on single events.