KENT'S golden girl of athletics, Kelly Holmes, has revealed that she slashed her body with scissors during an injury crisis before winning her two gold medals at the 2004 Olympics.

Dame Kelly, from Hildenborough, near Tonbridge, admitted: "I even thought, just for a moment, about pressing the scissors harder in my wrists."

In an interview with the News of the World, the 35-year-old athlete stressed: "It's the lowest I have ever been."

She admitted she started self-harming some 14 months before her famous victories in the 800m and 1,500m in Athens last August. She said a series of injuries had threatened her career.

She was training with world 800m champion Maria Mutola in the French Pyrenees but was in constant pain from a damaged calf and tissue strain, leaving her unable to run properly.

Dame Kelly says that grim episode is now firmly behind her and added: "I don't think I will ever get to that stage again because I have achieved what I've always wanted. I strove to be the best and not give up on it."