One of the best bits of news in the sporting world this week was the confirmation that Britain's Kelly Sotherton had been reunited with the heptathlon gold medal she won at the 2006 Commonwealth Games following a burglary at her Sutton Coldfield home last month.

West Midlands Police reported the medal, along with another of her golds from the English Schools Championships, had been found in a postbox on Tuesday afternoon - a day after the theft had been featured on BBC's Crimewatch programme.

The random and prosaic nature of the discovery struck a distant echo with the unlikely events four months before the 1966 World Cup finals.

On that occasion the Jules Rimet trophy, which had been stolen from an exhibition at Westminster City Hall, was discovered wrapped in newspaper under a suburban garden hedge in Beulah Hill, South Norwood, by a black and white collie dog called Pickles while he was being walked by his owner, David Corbett.

Pickles finds himself the centre of attention after discovering the stolen Jules Rimet trophy four months before the 1966 World Cup finals were due to start in England
©Hulton Archive/Getty Images

A year later, the impulsive Pickles - who earned his owner a £6,000 reward and was invited to England's subsequent celebration banquet - died after choking on his lead while chasing a cat. But that is another story, and a very sad one too...

"I told my boss and we decided the best thing was to take them straight to the police station and hand them in," said the Sutton Coldfield postman, Martyne Siviter,

"It is definitely one of the most unusual items I have found in a postbox and I am just pleased that Kelly will have her treasured gold medal back in her hands again," he said.

Sotherton herself tweeted: "What a great result!" And she added in a statement:

"I'm over the moon. Crimewatch seemed to appeal to someone's better nature.

"It must have been a bit of a shock for the postie but I'm glad it was put somewhere safe and can't wait to get my hands on it again."

It was good to hear such enthusiasm about the medal from Sotherton. She certainly didn't seem overwhelmed by it when I spoke to her along with other media members in the aftermath of her Commonwealth victory in Melbourne.

Kelly Sotherton has been reunited with the heptathlon gold medal she won at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, following its theft, even though she was not thrilled by her win at the time, it seemed ©Getty Images

Asked to describe what it felt like to be a gold medallist, a dejected Sotherton concluded glumly: "It's better than being the Midland Counties shot putt champion, which I was a few weeks ago."

The reason for Sotherton's dejection, two years after winning bronze at the Athens Olympics, was that she had underperformed on the second day, having spent most of the competition with her left calf strapped.

Although she had consolidated her lead with the first of her second-day events, the long jump - her old speciality - the then 29-year-old Birchfield Harrier had endured a dismal competition in the event that had cost her a medal at the previous year's World Championships, the javelin.

Not only did she fall eight metres shy of her not particularly good personal best with an effort of 32.04 metres, she also hurt her rib in doing so.

"I threw 33 metres in the snow before leaving Britain," she said. "I am never going to win medals in global championships throwing like this. I may as well give everyone 200 points at the start of the day."

She attempted to conclude with a flourish in the 800 metres. But after setting off fast, she struggled home fourth, one place ahead of her 20-year-old team-mate, eventual bronze medallist Jessica Ennis, for a winning total of 6,396 points which left her 98 points clear of Australia's Kylie Wheeler.

"I wanted to win at least one individual event here," Sotherton said. "But in the end I felt dead."

She added: "I've had a s***e day. I've let myself and everyone else down."

In truth, Sotherton should have had two golds that day - the second for uncomfortable honesty.

But then this athlete has always spoken her mind. Earlier in 2006 she and fellow long jumper Jade Johnson had to be separated by security guards after a row at the World Indoor trials in Sheffield.

One the eve of the Melbourne Games, she had disclosed that her nickname for the her relatively diminuitive British rival, Ennis, was "Tadpole". Ennis was polite about it - but clearly unamused.

Tadpoles, of course, grow up to be frogs; or even leapfrogs. But that is another story, and a very happy one too...

Sotherton's home Twitter page features a picture of herself collapsed in exhaustion on the track after completing the final 800m event in the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Kelly Sotherton celebrates after winning a heptathlon bronze medal at the Athens 2004 Olympics only for her coach Charles van Commenee to later reduce her to tears when he called her "a wimp" for not getting the silver ©Getty Images

On that occasion, this most self-critical of athletes was ill-served by her coach, Charles van Commenee, who reduced her to tears in full view of some British media as he accused her of being "a wimp" for not pushing harder to get the silver he believed she should have had.

On that occasion, the man who was to take over the British team for the London 2012 Olympics was effectively Charles van Curmudgeonly.

Sotherton, sadly, was unfit to contest those home Olympics. She was specialising in the 400m by that time, but picked up an injury.

Come to think of it, she was one of the few British athletes to suggest that it would be a bad idea for London to bid for the 2012 Games. Wrong, as it turned out - but you have to say, fair play for honesty. Sotherton has never been one to go with the crowd.

Illogical it may be, but such memories made me particularly glad that her unhappy story had had a happy ending - or at least, a partial happy ending. Apparently there are other medals still missing. Let's hope they don't include her Athens bronze.

Sotherton is only the latest in a long line of unfortunate sporting figures to have had the tangible rewards for their endeavours stolen. Some stories have ended happily; some not.

Soon after those London 2012 Games, two British Olympians had bronze medals taken after they had attended a Buckingham Palace reception. Hockey player Hannah Macleod and rowing eight member Alex Partridge were among athletes who had gone on to a London nightclub, Mahiki, and their medals were taken from their Olympic blazers after they had left them on their chairs while they went onto the dancefloor.

Alex Partridge (centre) en route to winning an Olympic bronze in the men's eight at the London 2012 Games, a medal stolen soon afterwards and which has yet to be reclaimed ©AFP/Getty Images

Macleod's medal was posted back anonymously to England Hockey's HQ a few days later. But Partridge, who was due to be in the British four at the Athens 2004 Games but had to pull out at the eleventh hour with a collapsed lung - Ed Coode replaced him to win gold with Matt Pinsent, James Cracknell and Steve Williams in a boat emblazoned with Partridge's name - has yet to be reunited with his London medal.

"It effectively represents 12 years of my life and it's not just my life, it's my family's life, and I'm probably never going to be able to experience that again or have a medal to show for it," he told Sky News at the time.

Another Briton awaiting the return of a precious Olympic medal - in this case a gold - is Rhona Howie, formerly Rhona Martin, who skipped her team to a curling victory at the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Games which made a huge media splash at the time.

Martin's medal was among several precious curling items stolen last April from Dumfries Museum.

Rhona Martin pictured during the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Games, where she skipped the British rink to victory in the women's curling. But her medal was stolen from a museum last year and has yet to be recovered ©AFP/Getty Images

Like Sotherton, Martin also featured on BBC's Crimewatch, and earlier this year it was reported that three men had been reported to the procurator fiscal in connection with the theft. But Martin remains without her "irreplaceable" medal.

"I believed it was part of Scotland, not just mine," she said. "I thought all the visits to schools would be worthwhile if it inspired one child to try to make a dream come true.

"Now that is the one thing I do not have. I am devastated. It was hand-finished, irreplaceable. The children loved wearing it, got a huge thrill from it."

Last year another Olympic curling champion, Brad Jacobs - who skipped Canada to victory at Sochi 2014  - had a specially made Olympic ring stolen from his motel room while he was in Boyle, Alberta, to promote a charity golf tournament. No sign of that so far either.

But there are happier tales to tell in this domain.

In 2013, Demetrius Pinder had the Olympic gold medal he had won as part of the Bahamas 4x400m relay team at the London 2012 Games stolen from his pickup truck at a Bradenton apartment complex.

(A pickup truck? What?)

The medal was later returned to him by police after they had arrested a 22-year-old in connection with its theft.

"It feels as if I'm back on the podium again," said Pinder, who added that he would keep the medal safe thereafter, only taking it out on special occasions.

John Konrads of Australia picture after winning the 1500m freestyle at the 1960 Rome Olympics. His gold was one of several medals stolen in 1985, but they all came to light after being discovered in a shoebox for sale on eBay in 2009 ©Hulton Archive/Getty Images