Kelly Sotherton has called time on her athletics career after a back injury meant that she would not be able to compete at London this summer.
Sotherton won a bronze medal at the Athens Olympics in 2004 but has since struggled to keep herself fit enough to compete at the highest level.
After the Beijing Games in 2008, where she finished fourth, she turned to the 400m in a bid to be able to keep herself fit.
She underwent surgery on her back earlier this month and she will not be fit in time to be able to take part in the Olympic trials.
Speaking to Eurosport the Olympian said: "I'm heartbroken if I'm honest but I'm looking forward to the new challenges that lie ahead.
"After losing my funding at the end of the 2011 season, having been forced to concentrate on the 400m for a year because of injury, I decided if I was going to do this myself then I would have one final shot at my first love - the heptathlon - and really go for the chance to compete at a home Olympics.
"Sadly it wasn't meant to be and the body didn't quite hold out long enough for me."
As well as bronze in Athens she also picked a bronze in the 2007 world championships and a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2006.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
by Helen Earnshaw
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