Sotherton's stolen gold medal found in post box

LONDON (Reuters) - Former British heptathlete Kelly Sotherton was reunited with her Commonwealth Games gold medal on Wednesday when it turned up in a post box after being stolen from her house.

(Reuters)

The theft of her medal from the 2006 Games in Melbourne where she beat 2012 Olympic champion Jessica Ennis was featured on the BBC programme Crimewatch on Monday.

"My medal was found in a postbox this morning....what a great result," Sotherton, who retired shortly before the London 2012 Olympics because of injury, said on Twitter.

West Midlands Police said the gold medal was found by a postman while emptying a red pillar box in Sutton Coldfield, close to where Sotherton lives.

"I'm over the moon. Crimewatch seemed to appeal to someone's better nature," Sotherton, a bronze medallist at the Athens Olympics in 2004 and at the 2007 world championships in Osaka, said.

(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Ed Osmond)