KELLY Sotherton insists her hopes of representing Great Britain in a third Olympics in London next year are very much alive despite the loss of her lottery funding.

UK Athletics announced the list of athletes who will receive financial support under the World Class Performance Programme for 2011/12, and Sotherton was the high-profile absentee.

The 34-year-old won a host of major medals in heptathlon, including Olympic bronze in 2004, but a series of injury problems forced her to quit multieventing last year and focus instead on the 400 metres.

Sotherton had received the second tier funding for sprinters who are expected to take part in the relays in 2012, but that support has now also been removed.

She said: ‘‘My goals, aspirations and intentions remain exactly the same as they did when I was on podium funding and that is to represent Team GB at the London 2012 Olympics.

‘‘I am still training hard, with my focus on being at peak physical condition come July 2012.’’ Sotherton had no complaints with the decision, adding: ‘‘This news does not come as a major surprise and it is not a setback to my ambitions and I am very grateful for the support that UK Athletics has offered me up until now.’’ She won silver as part of the 4x400m relay team at the European Indoor Championships in the spring but missed out on the World Championships in Daegu through a combination of disappointing form and a hamstring injury.

Sotherton was not the only athlete to be downgraded, with middle distance runners Jemma Simpson and Andy Baddeley also missing out while high jumper Germaine Mason, the silver medallist in Beijing in 2008, paid for a succession of injuries.

Sprinter Mark Lewis- Francis, disqualified from the World Championship trials for a false start, dropped from podium funding to podium relay.

UK Athletics head coach Charles van Commenee, who guided Sotherton to Olympic bronze seven years ago, was part of the funding selection panel.

He said: ‘‘We look at every athlete on an individual basis. The athletes simply have not met the criteria and the panel was of the opinion that they don’t have a realistic shot of a top eight position in London.

‘‘We want athletes to do well and it’s not great news for everybody but we have a duty to spend public money correctly.’’