Posted: August 14, 2005

Athletics: Radcliffe Rules In Women's Marathon

From David Monti

© 2005 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved RaceResultsWeekly.com

HELSINKI (14-Aug) -- What a difference a year makes, at least for Paula Radcliffe.

Radcliffe, the world record holder in the marathon, shook off her celebrated DNF at last summer's Athens Olympics, and executed a near-perfect race to win the women's marathon going away in a championships record 2:20:57, the fastest time ever in any major championships. Her dominance was complete: she led for every one of the 42,195 meters of the race.

"I'm pleased to have won the race and win the championship," said Radcliffe immediately after leaving Olympic Stadium. "I knew I was well-prepared for this race."

Employing a simple strategy of going out at a solid pace, and progressively increasing her speed, Radcliffe made all of her rivals work hard just to stay in the race. From the gun she was initially joined by Yumiko Hara of Japan and Asha Gigi of Ethiopia, and the trio built a small lead over a solid chase group which included defending world champion Catherine Ndereba of Kenya, double Olympic gold medalist Derartu Tulu of Ethiopia, and reigning Chicago Marathon champion, Constantina Tomescu-Dita of Romania. They passed the 5-K mark in 16:47 in steady rain.

"The idea was just to go out at a pace that was comfortable and decent," said Radcliffe who wanted to make things challenging from the start but not overstress herself too early in the race.

The gap between Radcliffe's group and the chase pack of seven held steady at just three seconds through the 10-K mark (33:23), but in the next five kilometers Kenyans Rita Jeptoo and Beatrice Omwanza fell back. Just before the 15-K mark Tomescu-Dita bridged the small gap up to the lead group.

"I started a little slower (than at the Paris championships), but after 5-K I was going after the group," said Tomescu-Dita who led the 2003 world championships marathon through 15 km before eventually dropping out.

Radcliffe, who never even glanced at her opponents, slowly continued to accelerate. She was clocked at 16:32 from 10-K to 15-K, and 16:22 from 15-K through 20-K. The hard pace forced Gigi and Hara to fall back, and Kenyans Ndereba and Hellen Kimutai passed then to join Radcliffe and Dita in the lead. The four stayed together through the half-way mark (1:09:49), but by 25-K Kimutai had to let go as the last 5-K passed in 16:32. Radcliffe was using the hills on the 10 km loop to drop her opponents.

"I was feeling good on the hills, I was enjoying the hills," she said. "It was nice to have a change in rhythm."

There was no explosive break. Radcliffe was just able to hold pace and form better than Ndereba and Tomescu-Dita, and her lead went from a few steps to 29 seconds by 40-K. At 1:42:15, in the 32nd kilometer, Ndereba went buy Tomescu-Dita and that's how they finished, despite the Kenyan having to deal with a tight calf muscle. Ndereba's time of 2:22:01 was nearly two minutes faster than her own championships record set in Paris in 2003, and Tomescu-Dita's 2:23:19, only 30 seconds off of her career best time.

With her victory, Radcliffe joined Grete Waitz of Norway (1982/1983) and Wanda Panfil of Poland (1990/1991) as the third woman to win the ING New York City Marathon and come back the following year and win a world title. She now has marathon victories at London (three times), Chicago, New York and the world championships. She earned the only gold medal by a British athlete at these championships, and became the only Briton --male or female-- to ever win a world marathon title. Her championships record time is all the more remarkable given that the course has a net elevation gain of ten meters.

Radcliffe shook off the notion that there was any real pressure from the British public or press to win a medal. She said that she did not read any newspapers during the week and that she just tried to focus on doing her best preparations and to execute her race plans.

"Honestly, the biggest pressure comes from myself," she said.

For the Americans Turena Johnson-Lane led the team with her 2:34:43 personal best time, good for 26th place. Jill Boaz (2:36:29) and Emily Levan (2:38:32 PB) also scored for the team, as the Yanks finished sixth in the world cup. Kenya was first in 7:12:37, Japan second in 7:16:35 and Great Britain, helped by Mara Yamauchi (2:31:26) and Hayley Haining (2:34:41) finished third in 7:27:04.