08 April 2003

Queen Paula returns to London

The first press conference of the Flora London Marathon Race Week saw Paula Radcliffe, the defending champion and favourite with William Hill at 6-4, take the stage in front of a packed conference room.

Last year was widely described as an annus mirabilis for Paula, who followed her marathon success with track victories in the Commonwealth Games 5,000m and the European Championships 10,000m, and questions began with how well her preparations had gone this year compared to last.

She commented: "I've had no physical problems this year compared to last year when I twisted my knee, so I'm in good shape."

Referring to her recent 10km victory in Puerto Rico, where she broke the world record by a massive eight-second margin, she admitted: "I ran really well there and had some really good training sessions out in Albuquerque. The hard work has been put in, so it's now just a case of getting my brain round it."

One incident marred her preparation however. Having run 22 miles on a training run in New Mexico, she was tripped up by a young cyclist and fell heavily. "I cut my hands, both knees and both shoulders, and dislocated my jaw" she said. "But really I was just scared that something so stupid could have messed up my preparations."

Fortunately her physiotherapist Gerard Hartmann was still at the camp and she has been able to continue with uninterrupted training, but she admitted: "My jaw is still sore, especially if I grimace when running, and I haven't been able to eat apples for the past two weeks."

Talk soon turned to the decision to include male pacemakers in the women's race, and Radcliffe was quick to deflect responsibility which had been attributed to her: "It was actually Christmas reports in the press which first alerted me to the possibility of having a mixed race." she said. "I was then contacted by Dave Bedford who asked me what I thought, so Gary (husband and manager) and I thought it over. We couldn't have one whole mixed race, but we decided that running with men would be a good step."

She confessed: "The difficulty with running with pacemakers is knowing you have to stick to a pace rather than make your own, but the other athletes will be in the same situation."

Joining Radcliffe will be a host of talent led by the second fastest female marathon runner of all time, Catherine Ndereba, and World and Olympic 10,000m Champion Derartu Tulu, and this played a large part for Paula in making London her choice for what will be her only marathon this year. "I need to learn racing aspects of the marathon, and I'll learn a lot from racing runners like Catherine and Derartu. The field is the best there is, and I know it will be a really strong race."

Despite the pacemakers, she was adamant that making sure of victory was more important than trying to smash her world record, commenting: "I'm running to win - that's the most important thing. I'm still learning, but I hope to iron out some small problems from my two previous marathons as this will be my last one before the Olympics in Athens, where I'm considering running the marathon."

Following the withdrawal of Mark Steinle from the men's race, Radcliffe is now the fastest British competitor running on Sunday. She is clearly taking no prisoners in her bid for success, stating: "I was disappointed to lose to the guy who ran with me in Chicago, so I'll definitely be aiming to beat everyone. When I'm running I only see bodies, and my competitive instinct makes me want to win."

Providing she stays clear of cyclists for the next few days, it would be a brave person who would bet against Radcliffe defending her title successfully on Sunday.